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Sixteen African countries have expressed interest in securing Covid-19 vaccines as part of an African Union (AU) initiative and the goal is to provide allocations within the next three weeks, the agency said. Reuters news release quotes the head of a continental disease control body.
However, John Nkengasong, director of the AU’s African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, did not give a specific date.
The AU initially obtained 270 million doses from manufacturers for member states, and then at the end of last month it announced it would receive an additional 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
African states that have started rolling out vaccines include Egypt, Guinea, Morocco and Seychelles.
South Africa, which has the highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths on the continent, received its first shipment of vaccines on Monday but the vaccination campaign has not yet started.
Many African states are purchasing vaccines under an international program separate from the AU effort called Covax, but some also plan to negotiate supplies directly from drug companies.
The Covax program aims to make it easier for poorer countries to buy vaccines, as richer countries increasingly fear taking them and practicing “vaccine nationalism.”
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