Despite decades of progress in childhood immunization, achieving coverage for the most underserved has been a steep challenge: 14 million infants annually receive no vaccines (zero-dose children), while a further 6 million receive some but not all vaccines. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, global immunization coverage rates of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis containing vaccines (DTP3) had stalled at around 85 per cent for over a decade.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought even more complexities to this already challenging scenario. By mid-May…