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Some wealthy nations that were most praised last year for controlling the coronavirus are now lagging far behind in getting their people vaccinated — and some, especially in Asia, are seeing COVID-19 cases grow.
In Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, the vaccination rates are languishing in the single figures. That is in sharp contrast to the U.S., where nearly half of all people have gotten at least one shot, and Britain and Israel, where rates are even higher.
Not only do those three Pacific countries rank worst among all developed nations in vaccinating against COVID-19, they also rank below many developing countries such as Brazil and India, according to national figures and the online scientific publication Our World in Data.
Australia, which isn't providing a full breakdown of its vaccination numbers, is also performing comparatively poorly, as are several other places initially considered standout successes in battling the virus, including Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan.
That could change as vaccination campaigns gather pace and supplies loosen. But meanwhile, previously successful countries are being left exposed to the virus and face longer delays in reopening to the world.
Japan, for instance, has fully vaccinated only about one per cent of its population and is facing a significant new outbreak just 10 weeks before it is to host the already delayed Olympic Games — although without spectators from abroad.
The government last week announced an extension of a state of emergency through the end of the month and confirmed more than 7,000 new cases last Saturday alone, the highest daily number since January.
Bureaucracy has been part of the problem. Countries that faced mounting death tolls from the virus often threw out the rule book, rushing through emergency vaccine approvals and delaying second shots past the recommended timeline in order to maximize the number getting their first.
Japan went through a more traditional approval process that required an extra layer of clinical testing for vaccines that had already been tested elsewhere and were being widely used.
New Zealand also went through its own approval process, finally giving a thumbs up to the Pfizer vaccine in February, two months after U.S. regulators had approved it for emergency use.
COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins last year promised New Zealand would be "at the front of the queue" for vaccines. Now he says the issue is supply. Pfizer declined to discuss whether it could have supplied New Zealand any faster, referring questions back to the government.
Australia has faced its own set of issues. Its plans to use mainly Australian-made vaccines took a blow in December when development was halted on a promising candidate because it produced false-positive HIV results.
Then the European Union blocked a shipment of more than 250,000 AstraZeneca doses to Australia in March, considering the EU's needs greater. Australian regulators also switched from recommending the AstraZeneca vaccine to the Pfizer vaccine as their preferred option for people under age 50, slowing the rollout further.
Wait-and-see approach
In South Korea, government officials initially insisted on a wait-and-see approach with vaccines, saying the country's outbreak wasn't as dire as in America or Europe. But as transmissions worsened in recent months, public pressure mounted and officials sped up their negotiations with drug companies.
Worried about possible shortages, South Korea's Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun and other officials began pointing fingers at measures taken by the U.S., Europe and India to tighten controls on vaccine exports to deal with large outbreaks at home.
Taiwan has given first shots to less than one per cent of its population, after receiving just a fraction of the millions of doses it ordered. It has also been developing its own COVID-19 vaccine, which officials say will be available by the end of July under emergency use.
Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccine expert at New Zealand's University of Auckland, said there were some advantages to taking a less frantic, more measured approach to vaccinating.
"It's much easier to commit yourself to something after you've seen it be used 100 million times," she said.
And having the luxury of sticking to the three-week schedule for second doses of the Pfizer vaccine will likely result in more people getting those shots, she said.
Petousis-Harris said that New Zealand and many other wealthy countries that were slow to get going will likely see their vaccination rates rise quickly in the coming months as their campaigns swing into high gear.
By next year, she said, it will likely once again be developing nations that are left behind.
-From The Associated Press, last updated at 7:35 a.m. ET
What's happening across Canada
WATCH | Questions surround what's next for AstraZeneca vaccine:
![](https://thumbnails.cbc.ca/maven_legacy/thumbnails/287/986/astrazeneca-questions-ghebreslassie-120521.jpg?crop=1.777xh:h;*,*&downsize=510px:*%20510w")
As of 11:10 a.m. ET on Thursday, Canada had reported 1,309,329 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 75,992 considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 24,802.
Ontario on Thursday reported 31 additional deaths and 2,759 new cases of COVID-19 — bringing the total number of cases reported in the province to 502,171. The province reported that 1,632 people were in hospital, with 776 in ICU due to COVID-related illness.
In Quebec, health officials reported 781 new cases of COVID-19 and five additional deaths.
Across the North, Nunavut was the first territory to provide updated figures on Thursday, saying there were 12 new cases. Premier Joe Savikataaq said on Twitter that there were 74 active cases in the territory, with all of them in Iqaluit. Health officials in the Northwest Territories and Yukon had not yet provided an update for the day.
In Atlantic Canada, Prince Edward Island on Thursday reported one new case of COVID-19 in a daycare worker, bringing the number of active cases on the island to seven. Health officials in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador had not yet provided updates.
In Manitoba, health officials reported 364 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and three additional deaths, which brought the province's pandemic death toll to 1,000.
Saskatchewan, meanwhile, reported 183 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and two additional deaths. Both Saskatchewan and Alberta have paused first doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine, citing supply issues.
In Alberta on Wednesday, health officials reported 1,799 new cases of COVID-19 and four more deaths due to the virus. Officials said 737 people were in hospital due to COVID-19, with 169 of them receiving intensive care.
British Columbia, which reported 600 new cases of COVID-19 and one additional death on Wednesday, will be holding its remaining stock of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine to use as second doses for residents.
-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 11:10 a.m. ET
What's happening around the world
As of early Thursday morning, more than 160.4 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to a tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The reported global death toll stood at more than 3.3. million.
In the Americas, the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to 473,000, a new pandemic low and the latest evidence that fewer employers are cutting jobs as consumers ramp up spending and more businesses reopen.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Sri Lanka's government has banned travel throughout the country for three days in an effort to contain rapidly increasing COVID-19 cases.
In Europe, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced an inquiry next year into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that is likely to focus on why the United Kingdom suffered Europe's worst death toll and was so slow initially to impose a lockdown.
In Africa, Kenya's health ministry on Wednesday said on Twitter that "925,509 persons have so far been vaccinated against the COVID-19 disease countrywide."
In the Middle East, Iran's reported COVID-19 case count stood at more than 2.7 million, with more than 75,900 deaths reported.
-From The Associated Press, Reuters and CBC News, last updated at 9:05 a.m. ET.
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Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Thursday - CBC.ca
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