NAIROBI, Kenya (CU)_The African Union has secured close to 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, following claims of inequity in the global supply of vaccines by several political leaders in the continent.
Nicaise Ndembi, senior science adviser for the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press that these 300 million doses are secured independently of the global COVAX effort, and the current chair of the AU, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, is expected to announce the news on Wednesday (Jan 13).
The news comes as countries across the African continent, particularly South Africa, continue to experience a dramatic surge COVID-19 infections and virus-induced deaths, especially owing to the new strain of the virus discovered in South Africa. Over the weekend, the continent reached a grim milestone of 3 million confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with more than one third of this number registered in South Africa.
According to Ndembi, these 300 million doses are expected to be delivered by the end of the first quarter of 2021, and will be allocated on the continental platform set up the AU in order to enable the 54 countries in the region to pool their purchasing power and buy pandemic supplies in bulk.
Although the African continent is also expecting 600 million doses from the COVAX facility, however, details on this regard have not yet been finalised. Therefore, “we’re happy we have alternative solutions,” Ndembi said.
According to the Africa CDC, 60 per cent of the African population (about 780 million people) must be vaccinated within a period of two years, failing which, the virus may become an epidemic in parts of the continent. It is estimated that this effort will cost around $10 billion, and although officials from the region have approached several vaccine manufacturers in order to secure deals for the continent, up to date, only one African country, Guinea, has managed to do any vaccinating so far, with about two dozen doses of a Russian vaccine.
Last month, several South African officials warned of “vaccine apartheid”, while the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that high-income countries are controlling the global supply of Coronavirus vaccines, as they have bought up the majority of the supply of multiple vaccines, and making additional bilateral deals, which potentially bumps up the price for the rest of the world.
Nevertheless, on Monday, President Ramaphosa announced that South Africa has secured 20 million vaccine doses to be delivered mainly in the first half of the year, adding that the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team recently created under the AU has done “tremendous work” to secure vaccine doses through intensive engagement with manufacturers.
“Given the massive global demand for vaccines and the vastly greater purchasing power of wealthier countries, we are exploring all avenues to get as many vaccine doses as soon as possible,” he said.
Under such circumstances, these recent agreements which secured 300 million doses for the African continent and another 20 million doses for South Africa is considered to be a major accomplishment for the region, in its battle against COVID-19.
