The third wave of Covid-19 in Africa has not yet reached its peak of infection, but already this wave is worse than the previous one according to the WHO, which is worried about the spread of the Delta variant. However, the Covax unit that will distribute vaccines to poor countries is at a standstill.
Almost 251,000 new cases were discovered last week in Africa, 20% more than last week. At the same time, the continent is still facing a shortage of vaccines. The Covax unit, pilot piloted by WHO, thought to distribute doses to poor countries is a failure, only 25 million doses have been distributed in Africa for 1.3 billion people and less than 2% of the African population is fully vaccinated against 25% worldwide.
In May and June, deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine in India were at a standstill. However, it is mainly this vaccine that the Covax system has relied on since the pandemic began distributing them in Africa. “Current delivery times are due to the serious epidemic situation in India and the fact that the doses produced by the Serum Institute of India have been redirected for local use while intended for the Covax system,” explains Aurélia Nguyen, CEO of Covax. We are in talks with the government and the Serum Institute and we expect deliveries to resume at the end of the year ”.
This shortcoming pressured the WHO and Covax to change their strategy by diversifying to turn to other vaccines. “We now have the choice of nine vaccines or candidate vaccines. If a manufacturer can not deliver to us, we can compensate with one of these new manufacturers, details Aurélia Nguyen. This gives us confidence in our ability to predict and deliver 520 million doses of vaccine by the end of the year ”.
Pending delivery start from September, Covax expects donations of vaccines from rich countries and calls for faster communication campaigns in favor of vaccination. With the lack of doses, mistrust is the second major obstacle to vaccination on the continent.
