COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Africa
Suhayl Omar and Wanjiku Kariuki
COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Africa
Suhayl Omar and Wanjiku Kariuki
The COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility was established by the World Health Organization in collaboration with the ACT-Accelerator vaccine partners the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. COVAX is bringing nations together, regardless of their income level, to ensure the procurement and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines (GAVI, 2020).
For participating countries, the COVAX facility’s principle is to maximize the chances of their populations getting access to the vaccines as quickly and safely as possible regardless of whether they are high, middle- or low-income countries.
This paper seeks to explore the distribution plan in place for the COVID 19 Vaccine to Africa in comparison to other continents.
Distribution of COVID 19 Vaccine
There are 240 million doses of the AstraZeneca/ Oxford vaccine, licensed to Serum Institute of India (SII) termed as “AZ/SII” and 96 million doses of the AstraZeneca/ Oxford vaccine under the advance purchase agreement between Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and AstraZeneca – termed as “AZ/SKBio”. In addition to these, there are 1.2 Million doses of the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine.
The distribution of the Vaccine has been allocated to 47 out of the 54 countries in Africa with an estimated population of 1.2 Billion in the 47 countries. 86,732,760 out of the 337.2 (25.72%) Million doses of the vaccine have been estimated to be distributed to Africa. This distribution is indicated in Appendix 1 (GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, 2021).
The distribution of the vaccine therefore caters for about 3.6% of the whole population of Africa with the assumption that this population are considered the most vulnerable groups such as the health care workers.
The following countries have either exercised their rights to opt-out, have not submitted vaccine requests, or have not yet been allocated doses;
- Burundi
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Gabon
- Madagascar
- Seychelles
- Tanzania
WHO advised that countries that are members of the COVAX Facility would have access to enough vaccines to immunize their population’s groups. In the first phase of allocation, doses would be made available to participating countries simultaneously until they can cover approximately 20% of the population of every country (WHO, 2021).
Kenya’s allocation for the vaccine stands at 4,176,000 doses (GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, 2021). This would cater for 2,088,000 Kenyans as the vaccine is given at two doses per person, representing 3.97% of the total population whereas the phased approach targeting vulnerable groups estimated at 15.85 Million Kenyans (Anadolu Agency, 2021).
Conclusion
According to worldwide statistics of Covid-19 vaccine distribution, more than 100 million doses of the vaccines have been administered globally to date, however only about 0.2% of the vaccines have been administered in Africa (The Conversation, 2021). Globally, 130 countries still haven’t received a single dose of the vaccine, while ten ‘developed’ countries have administered 75% of all Covid-19 vaccinations. United Nations Secretary General has declared this act as “wildly uneven and unfair”.
Even with the continued demand for vaccine equity, the COVAX facilities caveats have enabled the exclusion and delay of access to vaccinations in these countries. According to the COVAX facility interim distribution forecast, a key caveat is the prioritization of self-financing countries. A key example is, Canada which has been reserved for 1,903,200 AZ/SKBio vaccine doses within the COVAX facility but according to the Canadian government data on 4th February 2021, Canada has already vaccinated 2.43% of its population which includes 55.35% of healthcare workers with the first dose, which culminates the denials of vaccine equity at a global level (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2021). While, countries like South Africa and Kenya, actively engaged with vaccine efficacy trials, there has been no imperative post-trial access and benefit sharing in research achievements.
Quite visibly, the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine is proven to be quite low in Africa and its countries in comparison to other countries in the global scale with a key stressor on African countries mostly being middle- or low-income countries with large populations. Whereas the role that the WHO COVAX facility plays is vital, the predominant risk exists in undersupplying the continent with doses that can adequately cover at least, the vulnerable groups.
Appendix 1
|
Country |
Population |
WHO Region |
Vaccine |
Quantity |
|
Algeria |
43,050,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SKBio |
141,600 |
|
Angola |
31,830,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
2,544,000 |
|
Benin |
11,800,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
936,000 |
|
Botswana |
2,304,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SKBio |
117,600 |
|
Burkina Faso |
20,320,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
1,620,000 |
|
Cabo Verde |
549,935 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
108,000 |
|
Cameroon |
25,880,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
2,052,000 |
|
Central African Republic (CAR) |
4,745,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
372,000 |
|
Chad |
15,950,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
1,272,000 |
|
Comoros |
850,886 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
108,000 |
|
Congo, Dem. Rep. |
86,790,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
6,948,000 |
|
Congo, Rep. |
5,381,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
420,000 |
|
Côte D’ivore |
25,720,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
2,040,000 |
|
Djibouti |
973,560 |
EMRO |
AZ/SII |
108,000 |
|
Egypt, Arab Rep. |
100,400,000 |
EMRO |
AZ/SKBio |
5,138,400 |
|
Eswatini |
1,148,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
108,000 |
|
Ethiopia |
112,100,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
8,928,000 |
|
Gambia, The |
2,348,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
180,000 |
|
Ghana |
30,420,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
2,412,000 |
|
Guinea |
12,770,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
1,020,000 |
|
Guinea Bissau |
1,921,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
144,000 |
|
Kenya |
52,570,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
4,176,000 |
|
Lesotho |
2,125,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
156,000 |
|
Liberia |
4,937,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
384,000 |
|
Libya |
6,777,000 |
EMRO |
AZ/SKBio |
343,200 |
|
Malawi |
18,630,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
1,476,000 |
|
Mali |
19,660,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
1,572,000 |
|
Mauritania |
4,526,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
360,000 |
|
Mauritius |
1,266,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SKBio |
100,800 |
|
Morocco |
36,470,000 |
EMRO |
AZ/SKBio |
1,881,600 |
|
Mozambique |
30,370,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
2,424,000 |
|
Namibia |
2,495,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SKBio |
127,200 |
|
Niger |
23,310,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
1,872,000 |
|
Nigeria |
201,000,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
16,008,000 |
|
Rwanda |
12,630,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
996,000 |
|
Pfizer BioNTecch |
102,960 |
|||
|
Sao Tome and Principe |
215,056 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
96,000 |
|
Senegal |
16,300,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
1,296,000 |
|
Sierra Leone |
7,813,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
612,000 |
|
Somalia |
15,440,000 |
EMRO |
AZ/SII |
1,224,000 |
|
South Africa |
58,560,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SKBio |
2,976,000 |
|
Pfizer BioNTecch |
117,000 |
|||
|
South Sudan |
11,060,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
864,000 |
|
Sudan |
42,810,000 |
EMRO |
AZ/SII |
3,396,000 |
|
Togo |
8,082,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
636,000 |
|
Tunisia |
11,690,000 |
EMRO |
AZ/SKBio |
592,800 |
|
Pfizer BioNTecch |
93,600 |
|||
|
Uganda |
44,270,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
3,552,000 |
|
Zambia |
17,860,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
1,428,000 |
|
Zimbabwe |
14,650,000 |
AFRO |
AZ/SII |
1,152,000 |
Works Cited
Anadolu Agency. (2021, January 30). Anadolu Agency. From Anadolu Agency: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/kenya-announces-coronavirus-vaccination-program/2127910
GAVI. (2020, September 3). GAVI. From GAVI: https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/covax-explained
GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance. (2021). The COVAX Facility: Interim Distribution Forecast.
Public Health Agency of Canada. (2021, February 19). Public Health Agency of Canada. From Public Health Agency of Canada: https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/vaccination-coverage/
The Conversation. (2021, February 9). The Conversation. From The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/south-african-covid-19-vaccine-trials-hold-key-lessons-for-future-partnerships-154676
WHO. (2021, January 12). WHO. From WHO:
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