Africa will receive 300 million doses of Russian vaccine

Africa News of Monday 22 February 2021

Source: theeastafrican.co.ke

02/22/2021

The African Vaccine Procurement Task Force (AVATT) has received an offer of 300 million doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V.

African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) director John Nkengasong said the organization was “extremely proud” to offer the doses that will be available in May to the 54 member states. AVATT was created by the African Union to acquire additional vaccine doses, with Africa aiming to immunize 60 percent of the population.

At the same time, he said that already the 270 million doses previously obtained from AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson had all been taken at the first deadline of the allocation phase via the African Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP). .

Speaking at the weekly online press conference, Dr Nkengasong said about 26 countries have already submitted their requests to acquire 180 million doses of the vaccine.

With these 300 million additional Sputnik V vaccines, AMSP is speeding up Covid-19 vaccine pre-orders online for the 55 AU Member States.

“We are grateful to receive the Sputnik V vaccines from the Russian Federation and extremely proud to be able to offer them on AMSP for our AU Member States,” said Dr Nkengasong.

The Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine confers about 92% protection against Covid-19, late-stage trial results published in The Lancet have revealed. The analysis also showed that the shot also offers complete protection against hospitalization and death.

Although it initially sparked some controversy after its deployment before the release of definitive trial data, the Sputnik vaccine works in the same way as the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine developed in the UK and the Janssen vaccine developed. in Belgium. It can be stored at temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius (a standard refrigerator measures around 3 to 5 degrees Celsius), which makes it easy to transport and store.

According to the statement released on Friday, the vaccine will be available for a 12-month period starting in May. Only seven African countries, including Rwanda, South Africa and Morocco, have started vaccination.