As of Tuesday, the world's population had received three billion injections of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, vaccination campaigns remain uneven and poor countries still struggle to get vaccinated.

At least 3,009,773,775 doses have been administered worldwide according to an AFP tally based on official sources as of 11:00 GMT. The vaccination rate was 39 doses (first or second) per 100 people.

While the number of doses reached one billion 20 weeks after the start of mass vaccination campaigns in December and the second billion was reached within six weeks, it took less than four weeks to reach the third billion.

- UAE in the lead -

Worldwide, four out of ten doses (1.2 billion doses) have been given in China, followed by India (329 million) and the United States (324 million).

However, in terms of population among countries with a population of more than one million, Middle Eastern countries came out on top, led by the United Arab Emirates (153 doses per 100 inhabitants), and Bahrain (124). These countries are close to vaccinating or bypassing 60 percent of the entire population.

It is followed by Chile (118 doses per 100 population), the United Kingdom (113), Mongolia (111), Uruguay (110), Hungary (107), Qatar (107) and the United States (98). These countries have immunized half of their entire population (between 46 percent and 54 percent).

The European Union gave 357 million doses to 50 percent of its population. About 32 percent of people in the European Union are now fully immunized. The most populous countries in the bloc, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, had an average rate, with about a third of their population fully vaccinated.

- China steps up -

Today, China is accelerating the pace of vaccination after it started moderately to lead the race. Over the past week, 1.6 percent of its population received a shot of the vaccine every day. It is followed by Canada (1.4 percent) and Bahrain (1.3 percent).

While no country in Europe occupies any of these top three positions, the continent is making every effort, with 13 out of 20 countries recording the fastest rate of immunization, led by the Netherlands (1.2 percent), Belgium (1.1 percent), Denmark (1 percent) and Spain (1.1 percent). 

- Poor countries are lagging behind -

While most poor countries have started administering the vaccine - thanks mainly to the COVAX Mechanism- vaccination against Covid remains unequal; "High-income" countries (as defined by the World Bank) gave an average of 79 doses per 100 population, compared to a single dose in "low-income" countries.

While many wealthy countries (the United States, Canada, the Israeli Occupation and the European Union) have begun vaccinating adolescents, five countries have not yet begun campaigns: Tanzania, Burundi, Eritrea, Haiti and North Korea.

Among the poor countries that started vaccination, some have already stopped, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, due to a shortage of vaccines. In Africa, 3.6 doses were given per 100 people, which is 11 times less than the global average (39).

- AstraZeneca vaccine in the lead -

Despite the controversy surrounding it, the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine is the most widely used vaccine in the world and has been used in about 80 percent of countries and territories initiating vaccination (at least 171 of 216). The Swedish-British vaccine is given in rich countries - even if the population sometimes rejects it - and in poor countries, especially thanks to COVAX.