COVAX vaccines - The African Mirror

May

2021

Tanzanian experts say COVID-19 vaccines safe, recommend joining COVAX

EXPERTS appointed by Tanzania's new president have declared COVID-19 vaccines to be effective and recommended joining the COVAX facility that shares the inoculations, in the latest sign suggesting official scepticism about the pandemic is waning. The recommendations by a coronavirus committee formed in April by President Samia Suluhu Hassan were given by the chair of the group at a press conference at State House in Dar es Salaam on Monday. In its other recommendations, the experts proposed the government publish accurate statistics on the disease and urged that any alternative medicines pass scientific standards. It was not immediately clear what…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Solar technologies can speed up vaccine rollout in Africa. Here’s how

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

THER'S hope that some industrialised countries will achieve near-universal vaccination against COVID-19 in the coming months. Yet the effort to vaccinate even the most essential workers in developing countries has only just begun. By current estimates, achieving herd immunity (to current strains) will require at least 75% of the world’s population to be vaccinated. Some developing countries haven’t reached that level of coverage even for common vaccine-preventable diseases like measles and polio. CYRUS SINAI, PhD student, Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ROB FETTER, Senior Policy Associate, Energy Access Project, Duke University Many low-income countries will…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Sudan to receive Chinese vaccines

COVID-19

SUDAN will receive its first shipment of 250,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine tomorrow, according to state news agency SUNA. Sudan became the first country in the Middle East and North Africa region to receive vaccine doses through the COVAX facility this month when 828,000 doses of the shot produced by AstraZeneca arrived in the East African country.

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenyan vaccine offer to diplomats draws ire

NEWS

DAVID LEWIS and MAGGIE FICK KENYA has offered free COVID-19 vaccines to all diplomats based there, including thousands of United Nations staff, even though it has not completed inoculating its own health workers, other frontline staff or elderly, drawing criticism from local medics. The offer was made in a March 18 letter sent by the Ministry of Foreign affairs to diplomatic missions and seen by Reuters. Macharia Kamau, the foreign ministry's principal secretary, said the shots being offered had been supplied via the World Health Organization (WHO) co-led COVAX vaccine access scheme. Kenya, where nearly 2,000 people have died of…

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…