The World Health Organization says the COVAX Facility, a framework designed for fair international distribution of coronavirus vaccine doses, will end on December 31.

The WHO and other entities set up COVAX in 2020, when the coronavirus outbreak was declared a global pandemic. The framework has provided free vaccine doses to lower-income economies using funds contributed from advanced economies and others.

The UN health agency said on Tuesday that COVAX has supplied nearly 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses and safe injection devices to 146 economies.

It said COVAX's efforts "are estimated to have helped avert the deaths of at least 2.7 million people."

The WHO said COVAX "made a significant contribution to alleviating the suffering caused by COVID-19 in the Global South," or developing and emerging economies.

But it said the framework was initially limited in its ability to roll out vaccines globally due to a fund shortage, export bans and other factors.

It also noted that COVAX was "unable to completely overcome the tragic vaccine inequity."

The WHO said that after COVAX ends, low- and lower middle-income economies will continue to receive vaccines from an international organization named Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in the coming two years.