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Making COVID vaccines in Africa: advances and sustainability issues

Making COVID vaccines in Africa: advances and sustainability issues

Author BENJAMIN KAGINA, University of Cape Town THE history of vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa dates back to 1881 when Egypt’s Vacsera company was established. Before the COVID pandemic was declared, there were eight African countries that, to our knowledge, had a record of vaccine manufacturing facilities (see the map). They were: Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia (North Africa); Nigeria and Senegal (West Africa); Ethiopia (East Africa); and South Africa. Between them, they had 14 facilities. Few were involved from end to end (discovery, fill and finish, pack and distribute) production process. Instead, the focus was largely on the late…
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Mozambique wants vaccine for 20% of population

Mozambique wants vaccine for 20% of population

MOZAMBIQUE has applied to access COVID-19 vaccines through the global vaccine distribution scheme co-led by the World Health Organization, giving it the option to buy doses for at least 20% of its population, President Filipe Nyusi has announced. As a low-income country, Mozambique qualifies for subsidised vaccines under the COVAX facility, which aims to make available 2 billion doses of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021. "We have applied to the COVAX programme and we expect to get the vaccine to vaccinate 20% of vulnerable people", Nyusi said in an address to the nation. Health minister…
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AFRICA SECURES 270 MILLION COVID-19 VACCINE DOSES

AFRICA SECURES 270 MILLION COVID-19 VACCINE DOSES

THE African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team has secured a provisional 270 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for African countries, South African President and African Union (AU) chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa has revealed. Ramaphosa said the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), which he established after the outbreak of COVID-19, has reported that 50-million of the 270-million doses would be made available for the crucial period of April to June 2021. The vaccines would be supplied by Pfizer, AstraZeneca (through an independent licensee, Serum Institute of India) and Johnson & Johnson. Ramaphosa said that the AU efforts complemented the COVAX facility, a World…
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‘Feeling great’: Kenya starts vaccinations

‘Feeling great’: Kenya starts vaccinations

OMAR MOHAMMED  KENYA began vaccinating people on Friday against COVID-19 with AstraZeneca shots hoped to help revive the battered tourism-dependent economy of East Africa's richest nation. "This may mark the beginning of the end of the pandemic," said Susan Mochache, a senior official at the health ministry. Nairobi received over a million AstraZeneca doses on Wednesday, the first of 3.56 million shots via the global, vaccine-sharing COVAX facility. Top of the list is 400,000 health staff and other essential workers. Kenya plans to vaccinate 1.25 million people by June and another 9.6 million in the next phase, with more vaccines…
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‘Pricing out the poor’

‘Pricing out the poor’

NITA BHALLA KENYA will let private hospitals charge for COVID-19 vaccinations and will not set a price limit on their cost - a measure charities warned would "price out the poor" and create greater inequalities in access. The East African nation of more than 50 million people has so far received one million vaccine doses through the World Health Organization's COVAX facility, and plans to procure another 11 million for the public sector in the coming months. Patrick Amoth, acting director general at the Health Ministry, said on Thursday private hospitals would be permitted to import coronavirus vaccines, subject to…
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World should be back to normal by end of 2022 – Bill Gates

World should be back to normal by end of 2022 – Bill Gates

THE world should be back to normal by the end of 2022 thanks to COVID-19 vaccines, Bill Gates said in an interview for Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and television broadcaster TVN24. "This is an incredible tragedy," the Microsoft co-founder said on the pandemic, adding that the only good news was the access to vaccines. "By the end of 2022 we should be basically completely back to normal," Gates said. Gates, a billionaire who stepped down as chairman of Microsoft Corp in 2014, has through his philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed at least $1.75 billion to the global response…
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EXCLUSIVE-South Africa confirms going for COVAX vaccine scheme for 10% of population

EXCLUSIVE-South Africa confirms going for COVAX vaccine scheme for 10% of population

ALEXANDER WINNING THE South African government is going with the COVAX global COVID-19 vaccine distribution scheme, with a committed purchase for 10% of its population of 58 million, a senior health official has revealed. Khadija Jamaloodien, director of affordable medicines at the health ministry, told Reuters South Africa had not yet signed the commitment agreement to participate in the COVAX facility but would do so once officials had completed the necessary administrative processes. The country's initial strategy is to protect the vulnerable, including healthcare workers and priority groups, she said. A group of experts had advised the government to commit…
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WHO says vaccinating 20% of Latin America and Caribbean to cost more than $2 billion

WHO says vaccinating 20% of Latin America and Caribbean to cost more than $2 billion

ANTHONY BOADLE  VACCINATING 20% of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean against COVID-19 will cost more than $2 billion but low-income countries will be helped by the COVAX Facility led by the World Health Organization, its regional branch said on Wednesday. According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), COVAX aims to deploy at least 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021. "This is a remarkable figure. But we also know that it won't be sufficient to vaccinate everyone, at least not at first," , PAHO Assistant Director Jarbas Barbosa said. PAHO is working…
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Saudi in talks with COVID vaccine makers to supply Yemen, African states

Saudi in talks with COVID vaccine makers to supply Yemen, African states

SAUDI Arabia's finance minister said his country was talking to manufacturers to provide COVID-19 vaccines to low-income countries including Yemen and African states. "We are negotiating with a lot of the vaccination companies to provide more vaccinations particularly to low income countries," Mohammed al-Jadaan told the virtual World Economic Forum in Davos. Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition that has been fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi group in Yemen since early 2015, in a war that has pushed Yemen into a humanitarian crisis. Jadaan said Yemen and some African nations would not be able to get enough vaccines through the COVAX…
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Sixteen African nations show interest in AU vaccine plan

Sixteen African nations show interest in AU vaccine plan

GEORGE OBULUTSA and OMAR MOHAMMED SIXTEEN African countries have shown interest in securing COVID-19 vaccines under an African Union (AU) plan, and allocations could be announced in the next three weeks, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday. While many rich nations have already begun mass vaccination drives, only a few African countries have started vaccination, and the 55-member African Union hopes to see 60% of the continent's 1.3 billion people immunised in the next three years. The AU has so far secured around 670 million doses for its member states. Africa CDC…
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