In a statement, WHO says that 75 countries - including Portugal - have expressed interest in joining COVAX, joining 90 others whose goal is to achieve by the end of 2021 not only the creation of a vaccine for the new coronavirus, but distribute two billion doses equally by all participants.

The plan is to make a proportional distribution to the population of each country, starting with health professionals and then covering 20 percent of the population, increasing vaccine shipments according to "needs, vulnerability or threat of covid-19".

The initiative also aims to create a reserve to face serious outbreaks, allowing them to be controlled.

The countries that joined COVAX represent “more than 60 percent of the world population” and are from all continents, counting more than half of the 20 largest economies in the world.

In addition to paying for vaccines that they receive from their own national budgets, partner countries must "share the risks associated with vaccine development by investing in vaccine production so that they can be delivered proportionally as soon as they prove to be effective".

The expressions of interest of these dozens of countries are not binding, stresses the WHO, which will “start a consultation process” with each one, who should invest immediately in the production of vaccines and commit by the end of August to buy doses of the vaccine that will be tested successfully.