AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine - The African Mirror

Mar

2021

Vaccine shipments to Morocco delayed

KRISHNA N. DAS THE Serum Institute of India (SII) has told Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Morocco that further supplies of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will be delayed due to surging demand at home and as it works through a capacity expansion, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The news comes as India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, is being criticised domestically for donating or selling more doses than inoculations conducted at home, despite reporting the most number of coronavirus infections after the United States and Brazil. India is currently seeing a second surge of cases, taking…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenya calls first vaccines ‘bazookas’, Rwanda secures Pfizer shots

COVID-19

OMAR MOHAMMED and CLEMENT UWIRIGIYIMANA KENYA received over a million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, while Rwanda said it was the first in Africa to secure shots from Pfizer, as efforts to inoculate the world's poorest nations accelerated. With fewer resources and tougher logistics than other regions, African nations are racing to secure the doses needed to protect their roughly 1.3 billion people and allow the safe reopening of economies. Africa has been relatively lightly hit by the coronavirus relative to other regions, recording 104,000 deaths, according to a Reuters tally, That is lower than national tallies…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Senegal receives its first COVAX vaccines

COVID-19

SENEGAL received 324,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine early yesterday as the COVAX global distribution scheme accelerates delivery of the shots to the world's poorest countries. The doses will add to the west African country's stock of 200,000 vaccines it bought from China's Sinopharm to launch the first phase of its inoculation campaign. Around 40,000 people, including President Macky Sall have received the Sinopharm vaccine since the start of the campaign last week. Senegal is eligible for around 1.3 million doses for free in the first wave of disbursement from the COVAX progamme, which is backed by the World…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Ghana expects 350,000 vaccine shots

COVID-19

GHANA is expecting a first delivery of just over 350,000 AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine shots by the end of next week, a plan presented by health officials on Friday showed. The country will spend around $3 for every two shots of vaccine and inoculate around 20 million people against the virus, according to the plan. Developing countries, such as Ghana, are competing with richer nations for supplies as they scramble to source vaccines and launch inoculation campaigns. "On the estimated cost, we are looking at...for every person getting two shots, that would cost nearly $3 per person fully vaccinated for the…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

India backs AstraZeneca shot despite South Africa halt

COVID-19

KRISHNA N DAS and ANURON KUMAR MITRA INDIA has no concerns over the efficacy of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine despite South Africa putting it on hold, and ordered 10 million more doses of the shot for its own huge immunisation campaign. South Africa delayed use of the vaccine after researchers found it offered minimal protection against mild-to-moderate COVID-19 disease caused by the country's dominant coronavirus variant. India, with the highest number of infections after the United States, has yet to detect the South African variant and will continue to use the vaccine in an inoculation drive that has covered 6.3…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Mali picks AstraZeneca vaccine for 4.2 million people

COVID-19

MALI has chosen to use the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in its plan to initially immunise 4.2 million people, targeting medical staff, the elderly and those with comorbidities, the health minister has announced. Minister Fanta Siby said the vaccines, which unlike some others do not need to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures, would arrive at the end of March. "The vaccine that Mali has chosen, like most African countries, is the vaccine that keeps at +2 and +8 degrees," Siby told reporters. On Thursday the government said it wanted to buy more than 8.4 million doses of coronavirus vaccine, costing over…