A glimpse of hope for the African continent receiving COVID-19 vaccines
African countries are far behind when it comes to COVID-19 vaccinations because rich countries in Europe and North America have bought most of the existing and future supply. However, low-income or poor countries are at risk of having a large unvaccinated population that can increase the chance of coronavirus mutating.
WHO, other international groups and governments formed COVAX, with the aim of providing innovative and equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines. In other words, COVAX ensures that people in all corners of the world will get access to COVID-19 vaccines once they are available, regardless of their wealth.
COVAX recently announced plans for the first vaccine delivery to Africa. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa mentions that 90 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford AZD1222 vaccine could start arriving on the continent late in the month of February. In addition, 320,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine have been allocated to Cabo Verde, Rwanda, South Africa and Tunisia.
Therefore, African nations are urged to build up readiness and finalize their national vaccine deployment plans. Regulatory processes, cold chain systems and distribution plans need to be in place to ensure vaccines are safely expedited from ports of entry to delivery to avoid wastage of the dose.
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