Vaccines are still seen as the best way to allow economies to reopen while keeping the public safe, but many poorer nations are still lagging far behind their richer counterparts -- tens of millions in Asian cities are now once again living in lockdown.
A second shipment of vaccines donated by the United States through the COVAX global sharing program will bring the total to 3.3 million doses, UNICEF said.
"These vaccines arrive at a critical time for Afghanistan as the country faces a difficult surge in COVID-19 infections," said UNICEF.
But statistic modelling shows that number could potentially be more than five times higher, according to UNICEF statistics specialist Claudia Cappa, who co-authored the report.
The urgency stems from more than mere fairness: wherever the virus continues to circulate it could give rise to more contagious or more deadly variants that could wipe out any progress toward immunity.
Experts believe more and more migrants are choosing to travel with their families, including young children and pregnant women, to avoid being deported to the different countries they pass through.
UNICEF, a UN agency responsible for distributing vaccines through the global COVAX programme, it expects deliveries of the vaccines to be delayed this month and next.
We understand that deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income economies participating in the COVAX Facility will likely face delays following a setback in securing export licenses for further doses of COVID-19 vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), expected to be shipped in March and April.
EU lawmaker Peter Liese, from the same party as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said the report left him speechless, and he urged AstraZeneca to clarify the situation.
In Bangladesh and Nepal, for example, the number of young children being treated for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) fell by over 80 per cent, while child vaccinations fell sharply in India and Pakistan.
Faced with such "devastating" effects, Fore urged for children to be placed "at the heart of recovery efforts," particularly by "prioritizing schools in reopening plans."