The World Health Organisation (WHO) has allocated 320,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to four African countries: Cabo Verde, Rwanda, South Africa and Tunisia, excluding Nigeria.
Nigeria had submitted a proposal to be supplied the vaccine being donated by COVAX facility, the vaccine component of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.
But the country’s proposal was rejected. In total, 9 African countries were denied access to the initial supply of vaccine doses.
WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said Nigeria and other countries were turned down based on different criteria, including capacity to store the vaccine doses at minus 70 degrees Celsius.
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Moeti noted that the process of selecting the four countries was “challenging”, adding that “supplies were limited”.
She stated that deliveries are expected later on in February.
“In addition, around 320,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been allocated to four African countries: Cabo Verde, Rwanda, South Africa and Tunisia. Deliveries are also expected later on in February,” her statement read in part.
“To access an initial limited volume of Pfizer vaccine, countries were invited to submit proposals. Thirteen African countries expressed an interest in participating in the initiative, and their proposals were evaluated based on current mortality rates, new cases and trends and capacities to deliver this vaccine, including to store it at minus 70 degrees Celsius.
“I have to say that this was a challenging process as we know all countries want to start vaccinating their populations. The supplies were limited but we are glad that we will have a number of countries start and we look forward to working with the other countries to expand this vaccine delivery.”
She urged African nations to ramp up readiness and finalise their national vaccine deployment plans.
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“Regulatory processes, cold chain systems and distribution plans need to be in place to ensure vaccines are safely expedited from ports of entry to delivery points,” Moeti said.
“Planning for the vaccination campaigns, including putting in place strategies to engage communities will be critical.”
She added that “we cannot afford to waste a single dose of these vaccines.”
The delay is a major setback for Nigeria’s plan to vaccinate its citizens against COVID-19 which has already killed 1,640 out of the over 138,000 infected victims.
Earlier this week, Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, said Nigeria was expecting 15 million vaccine doses in February. It’s not clear if his estimate included the Pfizer vaccine doses.
Recently, Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said the country will invest in the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine which can be stored with the country’s available freezers for routine immunisation vaccines.
© ControlTV 2021.
