COVID-19 caused significant declines in regular vitamin A supplementation for young children in 2020: what is next?

[...]the expectation was that disruptions due to the COVID-19 response would cause significant declines in programme coverage of key services, and eventually increase preventable morbidity and mortality among the most vulnerable children.1 The magnitude of the pandemic’s impact on preventive vitamin A supplementation (VAS) programmes is now made visible in UNICEF’s annual programme coverage data. Based on administrative data analysed by UNICEF,3 there was a 19 percentage point decline in two-dose VAS coverage from 2019 (from 60% to 41%; figure 1), with 62 million fewer children (ie, one-third) receiving both VAS doses in 2020. In the second half of 2020, when suspensions were rescinded, 57% or 192 million eligible children were reached compared with 63% or 211 million children in the second half of 2019 (a drop of only six percentage points). Source: UNICEF, Estimates of vitamin A supplementation coverage in preschool-age children, Methods and processes for the UNICEF global vitamin A supplementation database. 6 Eight countries drove the sharp decline in two-dose coverage in 2020: