Namibian Minister for Health and Social Services, Kalumbi Shangula, has announced the establishment of a technical team. The team’s task is executing the storage, transport, and distribution requirements of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The formulation of the technical team is a move by the ministry to prepare for mass vaccination in the country by mid-next year. The Namibian government aims to vaccinate 20% of its population, majorly health workers and the vulnerable, in the first vaccination phase.
Expensive Affair
The vaccines need to be stored at extremely low temperatures, of between negative 20 and negative 80 degrees Celsius. For this reason, each African country ought to have high-end refrigerators to store the vaccines. However, most African countries lack the required refrigerators.
This cold chain storage will see most African states part with around 200 to 300 million USD annually, 80 percent of the total vaccination costs.
Adding to the vaccination costs is that each country has to pay a commitment deposit to Covax, a facility meant level the access of the vaccines between developed countries and the poor-to-middle-income countries.
The Namibian newspaper reports that the country, like other countries, lacks the necessary storage facilities. As a result, the country’s treasury will have to cash out a significant amount for refrigerators’ purchase. Moreover, the treasury will pay N$29 million as a deposit to Covax.
What are the options?
The Namibian reports that the country has an option of choosin Pfizer vaccine manufactured by American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German ally, BioNTech SE; or the vaccine developed by Moderna Inc, Massachusetts.
Both vaccines have a more than 90 percent efficacy test. However, Pfizer requires negative 70 degrees Celsius refrigeration, colder than Antarctica’s winter. On the other hand, Moderna’s vaccine only needs to be frozen at negative 20 degrees Celsius, much less a typical refrigerator’s temperature.
On Friday morning, Namibia’s President, Hage Geingnob, declared that the country was experiencing a second wave of Covid-19. The announcement came after the country recorded a total of 301 cases in the previous day. Notably, it is a significant rise considering that the government only reported 66 cases on the second day of December.
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