As many countries around the world are making important decisions about who gets vaccinated against Covid-19, Africa is increasingly on a razor edge as access to the vaccine is not guaranteed. The challenge facing Africa is access: availability of the required vaccine doses and access to financing to make purchases.
Specifically, Africa is scaling walls in the ongoing global race to access the vaccine as rich countries, representing just 13 percent of the world’s population, have already cornered more than half (51 percent) of the promised doses of leading Covid-19 vaccine candidates, according to Oxfam International.
Oxfam analysed the deals that pharmaceutical corporations and vaccine producers have already struck with nations for the five leading vaccine candidates currently in phase 3 clinical trials, based on data collected by Airfinity, the data and science analytics company.
African countries are also grappling with logistics — how to distribute the vaccines which so far require ultra-cold temperatures. The even harder choice is who gets them first. Scientists recommend people most at risk and those most likely to transmit the virus.
“We are very pleased that the vaccines are beginning to become available but we are concerned about access ...At the moment, the high income countries have pre purchased or purchased the vaccines that are available; our first challenge is to get the vaccines from the manufacturers,” Dr Donald Kaberuka, a member of the Covid-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team told The East-African.
According to the Africa Centre of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC-Africa) Africa needs two billion dozes in order to vaccinate 60 percent of the population to contain the pandemic, that is, to arrest further transmission and death from Covid-19.