COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme - The African Mirror

Jun

18

2021

Tanzania to request to join COVAX

OMAR MOHAMMED TANZANIA hopes to join the COVAX global vaccine-sharing facility, the latest sign it has changed tack following the death in March of COVID-19- and vaccine-sceptic president John Magufuli. A World Health Organisation official said vaccines could arrive in the country of 58 million people within two weeks. Since taking office in March, new president Samia Suluhu Hassan has sought to gradually bring Tanzania into line with global public standards for tackling COVID-19. The country is one of only four in Africa that have yet to start vaccination campaigns, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.…

Jun

05

2021

By The African Mirror

COVAX hopes to deliver delayed AstraZeneca shots to Africa in June, July

COVID-19

EMMA FARGE THE COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme hopes to send millions of delayed doses of AstraZeneca's shots to Africa in June and July, but the deployment hinges on a Spanish manufacturing site securing regulatory approval, according to U.N. officials. Africa has been hit by a halt in vaccine exports from India which were due to make up a significant portion of the first phase of the COVAX roll-out. As a result, many recipients including health workers will not receive their second dose of the AstraZeneca shot within the recommended 12-week interval. "The second dose gap is a huge issue," World Health…

Jun

04

2021

By The African Mirror

Biden says U.S. to send 25 million COVID-19 vaccines around the world

COVID-19

JEFF MASON and CARL O’DONNELL US President Joe Biden has laid out how his country would share some 25 million of a planned 80 million COVID-19 vaccine doses with the rest of the world. The United States will donate nearly 19 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine supply through the COVAX international vaccine sharing program, he said in a statement. Through COVAX, some 6 million doses would go to Latin America and the Caribbean, about 7 million doses to South and Southeast Asia and roughly 5 million for Africa. The remaining doses, amounting to just over 6 million, would go…

Jun

04

2021

By The African Mirror

France donates 184,000 doses to Senegal

COVID-19

FRANCE has donated 184,000 doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to Senegal through the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, the programme's sponsors said in a statement. This is the second batch of COVID-19 vaccines Senegal has received through the global scheme after an initial 324,000 AstraZeneca doses arrived in March. The arrival of the latest batch is timely. Senegal's supply of vaccines is running low just as thousands of people are due for their second jabs. Most of the country's 16 million citizens have yet to receive a first dose. Around 456,000 people in Senegal had been vaccinated as of Tuesday, programme sponsors…

May

18

2021

By The African Mirror

G7 urged to donate ’emergency’ supplies to vaccine-sharing scheme

COVID-19

EMMA FARGE THE head of UNICEF has asked G7 countries to donate supplies to the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme as an emergency measure to address a severe shortfall caused by disruption to Indian vaccine exports. India has curbed exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by its Serum Institute, which had been pledged to COVAX, to be used by the country as it battles a massive second wave of infections. U.N. agency UNICEF, which is in charge of supplying coronavirus vaccines through COVAX, estimates the supply shortfall at 140 million doses by the end of May and about 190 million by the…