NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – The African Union has secured nearly 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in the largest such deal to date for Africa, a continental official said Tuesday.
Nicaise Ndembi, senior science adviser for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press in an interview that current AU chairman, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, is expected to announce the news Wednesday.
The 300 million doses are being secured independently of COVAX’s global effort to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income countries, Ndembi said.
“We have reached the final stage of our deals,” he said, referring to the upcoming announcement with questions about who will provide the vaccines and at what cost.
The news comes as the coronavirus is once again spiking in parts of Africa, particularly South Africa, where a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus is now making up the majority of new cases. The continent surpassed 3 million confirmed cases over the weekend since the pandemic began, with more than 1.2 million in South Africa.
“We plan to have these by the end of the first quarter of 2021,” Ndembi said of the nearly 300 million doses that will be allocated on the continental platform the AU set up last year to provide it for the 54 countries of the world. Making Africa easier to bundle. their purchasing power and buy pandemic supplies in bulk.
“We expect 600 million doses from the COVAX facility,” he said, but African officials are still awaiting the details, so “we’re glad we have alternative solutions.”
Ndembi said African officials have approached at least 10 vaccine manufacturers and developers as the continent wants to vaccinate 60% of its population of 1.3 billion people or about 780 million people. The Africa CDC has said it will require about 1.5 billion doses, assuming two doses per person. It estimates the effort will cost approximately $ 10 billion.
Ndembi has said he is very optimistic that can be achieved within two years. The CDC for Africa has warned that if it takes much longer, there is a risk of the virus becoming endemic to parts of the African continent.
In a speech to South Africans on Monday evening, Ramaphosa announced that the country had 20 million doses of vaccine “which will be delivered mainly in the first half of the year.” He gave no further details, but said, “We will make further announcements as we finalize our negotiations with vaccine manufacturers.”
Africa has resisted on multiple fronts to obtain vaccine supplies. Ramaphosa said the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, recently established under the AU, has “done a tremendous job of securing vaccine doses” through what he called intensive collaboration with manufacturers.
“The South African government has been working directly with several vaccine manufacturers for more than six months,” he said.
“Given the huge global demand for vaccines and the vastly greater purchasing power of wealthier countries, we are exploring all options to get as many vaccines as possible as soon as possible,” Ramaphosa said.
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