Last week an African official announced that the Africa Union had successfully secured close to 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses. The official added that this was the largest of any agreements to secure doses in the continent. Mr. Ndembi, the African official, did not provide any details concerning who would provide the vaccines and at what cost when he made the announcement. He just stated that the continent had reached the final stages of securing vaccines from sources. He, however, disclosed that shots acquired would be secured independently of the global COVAX effort.
The COVAX Initiative
Developing countries, especially in Africa, placed all their hopes on acquiring coronavirus shots on the COVAX initiative. The World Health Organization started COVAX with the vaccines alliance CEPI and GAVI, a global coalition to fight epidemics. The organizations created the COVAX initiative to prevent an international stampede for vaccines when a vaccine would be available. The initiative would ensure that the entire world would have access to COVID-19 vaccines by sharing them fairly amongst all nations.
When vaccines became available, some of the wealthier countries that even funded research to acquire a vaccine utilized their greater purchasing power to buy vaccines. Their actions have proven to be disastrous for other lower-income nations as the nations are clearing up vaccine stocks available. This has left many countries, especially in Africa, exploring an alternative to get as many vaccine doses as soon as possible. Meanwhile, with the realization that the Covax initiative can’t deliver, some lower-income nations have chosen to pull out the initiative altogether.
The African Union Briefing
But with news of the 300 million vaccine doses breaking out, Africa acquired a fighting chance. Mr. Ndembi reported that they planned on having the doses by the end of the first quarter of 2021. Once obtained, the doses would be allocated to the continental platform the AU set up last year. The forum would make it easier for Africa’s 54 countries to pool their purchasing power and buy pandemic supplies in bulk.
This week the African Union provided more details concerning the plan to roll out the COVID-19 shots secured by the organization this month. An organization official revealed that African countries would pay between $3 and $10 per vaccine dose during the briefing.
The head of Africa’s Centers for Disease Control, John Nkengasong, stated that the prices were comparable to those available through COVAX. Mr. John added that African countries should be happy with the low prices amid the rising African cases. The continent is currently grappling with the second wave of infections and concerns of more-infectious variants of the virus. The variants were firsts identified in South Africa and Britain. Due to the increased infections, Africa has so far more than 3.3 million COVID-19 cases and over 80,000 deaths.
Different Vaccines Acquired
The African Union also revealed from their briefing that they would be acquiring 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from Serum at $3 each. The vaccines would be enough to vaccinate 50 million people with its two-dose regiment. The AU said the AstraZeneca vaccine was the cheapest vaccine on the market. Thus, the vaccine would best suite the African health systems. The medication does not require storage at ultra-low temperatures like the Pfizer vaccine.
Additionally, the AU revealed they would get 50 million doses of the two-shots Pfizer vaccine at $6.75 each. Furthermore, the J&J expected to complete its trials in the coming weeks would provide 120 million doses of its single-shot vaccines at $10 each. The population sizes of each nation would determine how much of each vaccine the countries would be offered. But deals to secure more vaccines were still underway, according to the briefing.
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