Africa focused to win COVID-19 battle despite vaccine challenges

Despite the worrying global shortage of COVID-19 vaccines across the globe amid spreading cases and rapidly emerging variants, Africa is putting measures in place at the continental and national levels, ready to win the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

With a population of 1.3 billion people, the continent has the slowest COVID-19 vaccine rollout so far, with less than 2 percent of its population vaccinated.

The halt of AstraZeneca vaccine exports by India is partly to blame for the slow rollout, as the continent relied on Serum Institute of India manufactured vaccines, because of their affordability and easy distribution.

The institute also is the main supplier of COVID-19 vaccine doses to Covax, a global coalition that works to ensure fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines around the world.

Between February and May, Africa received 18.2 million of the 66 million expected doses through the Covax facility, according to the World Health Organization.

While the Covax facility is exploring options to mitigate the impact of the global supply shortage by negotiating with other manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines to diversify its portfolio, the African Union is working on purchasing vaccines to supplement the freely supplied Covax doses.

Initially, 20 percent of the African population was to be vaccinated by the end of the year through Covax-supplied vaccines.

The African Union, on the other hand, targets vaccinating 60 percent of the continent's population to achieve herd immunity.

On that backdrop, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is procuring the additional vaccines through the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team.

In March, the task team signed an agreement with Johnson and Johnson to access 220 million COVID-19 vaccines, with a potential to order an additional 180 million doses.

According to Doctor John Nkengasong, the vaccines are expected to be available in the continent in the first week of August.

To date, 37.8 million COVID-19 vaccines have been acquired by African Union member states, of which 24.2 million have been administered. Globally, more than 1.63 billion vaccine doses have been administered.

In light of the under supply being faced by the Covax facility, African countries are making national arrangements to access alternative vaccines to protect their populations as new coronavirus variants continue to spread across the continent.

Several countries have ordered doses of Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, Sinopharm and Sputnik V among others, with some ordering three or more different types of COVID-19 vaccines.

South Africa, the most affected country in Africa with more than 1.6 million infection cases and over 55,000 deaths, kicked off its phase two vaccination on May 17.

With approximately 58.6 million people, South Africa is targeting 5 million elderly people in phase two inoculations.

As of Sunday, the country had vaccinated a total of 647,983 people, according to the Ministry of Health.

On Saturday, President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed concerns about a possible third wave of coronavirus infections in the country that has so far reported three variants of coronavirus.

Ramaphosa said they are keeping a close eye on the increasing numbers of infection cases in addition to working hard to ensure ordered vaccines are acquired.

He said while the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines are already in place in South Africa, the US Food and Drug Administration has put a block on use of the vaccine across the globe.

South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare entered into an agreement with Johnson & Johnson in November 2020, to manufacture its COVID-19 vaccines at its facility in Port Elizabeth.

Kenya's Ministry of Health on Friday said the government is working on acquisition of additional vaccines to ensure 60 percent of the population is vaccinated by the end of June 2022 to attain herd immunity.

In a series of tweets on its official Twitter account, the ministry said it's expecting to get 130,000 doses from the Covax facility through the GAVI dose-sharing arrangement across neighboring countries early this week.

It said cumulative available doses will enable the country to start off its second dose of vaccinations by the end of this week.

"The vaccines we are expecting have a shelf life of one month, which means they will expire at the end of June. We are encouraging all frontline workers who got their first dose in the month of March to turn up for their second dose as soon as they are required to do so," the ministry said.

The ministry urged all vaccination centers to remain open throughout the upcoming weekend to allow second doses to be administered.

Egypt on the other hand, in addition to securing different types of vaccines and working on partnerships with Sinopharm to have COVID-19 vaccines manufactured locally, on Wednesday extended measures to contain the spread of the virus.

Infection cases have been rising in the country and officials warned of further spread due to the recently ended Ramadan celebrations that saw families congregate for parties.