AstraZeneca vaccines are not available in many African countries to administer second doses since India bans exports because of the current crisis.
Africa’s vaccine campaigns for COVID-19 face substantial delays as a result of the Indian export ban, which is experiencing a devastating disease resurgence, Africa’s leading health official has said.
The AstraZeneca vaccine generated by the Serum Institute of India was to be part of the COVAX initiative, supported by the United Nations, which aims to deliver vaccines to low and middle-income countries.
India’s deadly crisis and its move to stop all exports of producing vaccines have seriously disrupted Africa’s mass vaccination campaign, which lagged behind several other areas of the world, said John Nkengasong, the director of the Africa Centre, on Thursday.
Many African countries distributed all the AstraZeneca vaccines that they got and expected new supplies, according to Nkengasong in his weekly news briefing.
However, as a result of the Indian export ban, AstraZeneca vaccines are not available to offer citizens their second dose.
“It is likely that there will be a big pause because of what is happening in India,” Nkengasong said, who proposed utilizing other vaccines.
“Countries could explore ways for the use of an alternative, the single-dose vaccine through the African Union vaccine procurement team, of Johnson & Johnson vaccines,” he added.
Nkengasong has reported that the continent has more than 4.7 million cases of illness, including 127 000 deaths, as a result of the spread of the virus, accounting for 3% of global infections and 4% of global deaths.
About 60 percent of all infections reported on the continent are in South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and Egypt.
Last week, a little over 56,000 cases were reported, a 6% reduction in new infections compared to the previous week, he said.
Nkengasong said that nine African countries have detected the variant now prevailing in India.
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