DAKAR: Africa is unlikely to satisfy its targets for vaccinating the continent towards COVID-19 if provide delays from a key Indian producer proceed, the director of the Africa Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention warned Thursday.
Dr. John Nkengasong informed a press briefing that officers hope the issues on the Serum Institute of India will solely be momentary in any other case “it will positively influence our potential to repeatedly vaccinate individuals.”
“I actually wish to intentionally hope that it’s a delay — not a ban — as a result of that will be catastrophic,” he stated.
Greater than half of the 29.1 million vaccine doses acquired by African nations to date have come via the worldwide COVAX initiative, which goals to make sure that low- and middle-income international locations have truthful entry to vaccines. COVAX has largely relied on distributing the AstraZeneca vaccine, as a result of it’s cheaper and solely requires abnormal refrigeration.
However the Serum Institute of India not too long ago introduced that as many as 90 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine destined for COVAX worldwide will likely be delayed via the top of April as India’s authorities grapples with a spike in infections among the many nation’s 1.4 billion individuals.
Nkengasong stated it isn’t but identified what influence the uncertainty might need for scheduling second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in African international locations.
“We’re monitoring that very, very intently,” he stated Thursday. “I’m certain international locations are nonetheless making an attempt to complete vaccinating their first spherical of the vaccines that had been acquired.”
Nkengasong remained optimistic, although, {that a} deal introduced on Monday for African international locations to amass the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine stays “an historic second and a game-changer.”
The settlement with the African Union’s African Vaccine Acquisition Belief requires 220 million doses to be delivered by the third quarter of this 12 months, with an choice to amass an extra 180 million doses via 2022.
If these 400 million individuals obtain the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, it will symbolize greater than half the continent’s purpose of 750 million, Nkengasong stated.
Africa has confirmed greater than 4.2 million instances and 112,000 deaths, however since most international locations on the continent lack the means to trace mortality information, it isn’t clear what number of extra deaths have occurred because the pandemic started.
