[ad_1]
Millions of coronavirus vaccines from the global Covax program arrived in Nigeria, DR Congo and Angola on Tuesday, as African countries accelerated the rollout of their vaccines.
While Africa’s most populous country Nigeria has received nearly four million doses, DR Congo has received 1.7 million doses and Angola has received over 600,000 doses and The Gambia is expected take about 30,000.
Last week, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire were the first African countries to receive vaccines from Covax, which aims to deliver two billion doses by the end of the year.
Richer countries have taken a leap forward with vaccinations, but many poorer countries are waiting for deliveries, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to warn that the crisis cannot end if all the world cannot immunize its people.
The Covax facility, run by the WHO with health NGOs, aims to deliver vaccines to dozens of countries in the first 100 days of 2021 and two billion doses by the end of the year.
However, there are still critical obstacles to deployment in large African countries with fragmented infrastructure and an array of security challenges – a point addressed by Faisal Shuaib, director of the primary health care agency. from Nigeria.
“States without a functioning airport will have their vaccines transported by road using vans equipped with equipped cold cabins from the nearest airport,” he said.
The newly arrived doses are the first of 16 million jabs Covax plans to deliver in the coming months to the country of 200 million people. By Kola Sulaimon (AFP) He called the delivery – which arrived around noon in the capital Abuja – a “good day for Nigeria” and promised the deployment would begin in earnest on Friday, with frontline health workers being the first to be vaccinated.
Nigerian official Boss Mustapha urged traditional leaders, religious leaders, civil society groups and the media to spread the message that vaccinations were necessary, adding: “This is a fight for everyone”.
Democratic Republic of Congo Health Minister Eteni Longondo told Kinshasa: “We have ordered around six million doses. Today we have received 1.7 million, I believe.”
He said the first shipment would be used to immunize “health workers, people over the age of 55 and people with comorbidities like diabetes and hypertension,” adding that the rollout would start in full force next week. .
“We will first inform the population, let them see the benefits of these vaccines. And then we will vaccinate the population,” said Longondo.
In Angola, where some health workers were vaccinated soon after doses were unloaded, WHO’s Djamila Cabral said the arrival of the vaccines brought “greater hope of saving lives,” but warned that everyone had to continue to abide by Covid restrictions to beat the pandemic.
70% target
The nearly four million doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford received by Nigeria, carried out by the Serum Institute of India, are the first of 16 million doses Covax plans to deliver over the next few months to the 200 million country.
The government has said it hopes to vaccinate at least 70% of its adult population within the next two years and health officials said more than two million people have already signed up for the vaccine online.
“As the vaccines arrive in batches due to limited supply, we will inform Nigerians about who and where to get the vaccine,” Shuaib told reporters.
Nigeria, DR Congo and Angola together have recorded less than 4,000 deaths in around 210,000 cases since the start of the pandemic – although official figures in most countries are considered to be underestimates. .
A new variant of the virus has also been discovered in Nigeria, but researchers have yet to determine whether it is more contagious or deadly than the original strain.
Covax, an initiative led by Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) with UNICEF as an implementing partner, aims to deliver 237 million doses of AstraZeneca by the end of the May.
Source link
