IGAD jostles for COVID-19 vaccines
The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) says member States under its umbrella cannot be left behind as the regional bloc joins rest of the world in jostling for the coronavirus vaccine.
During the 38th Extraordinary Assembly, IGAD urged the international community to ensure fair, equitable and timely distribution of a safe and affordable COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the statement seen by The City Review, the body says much emphasis are needed to support efforts of Member States in registering for the SARS-Cov-2 vaccine initiative and to put in place coordination frameworks to ensure equal access to the doses for vulnerable populations.
“We thank the European Union for the swift, timely and generous support to the IGAD Regional Response Strategy to COVID-19 with particular focus on vulnerable populations in cross-border areas, trade points, migration centers, refugee camps, and host communities,” the statement reads partly.
An analysis by the World Health Organization shows that despite the global race to find a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, most African countries are far from ready.
The global health body says all 47 countries in the WHO African Region have received the Vaccine Readiness Assessment Tool intended to be used by Ministries of Health, with support from UNICEF.
However, the UN agency says, 40 of those countries updated the tool and provided data – which after a rigorous analysis found an average readiness score of 33% for the vaccine roll-out, far below the desired benchmark of 80%.
In November this year, Pfitzer, an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation announced that an interim analysis showed its vaccine candidate was “90% effective” in protecting people from COVID-19.
Pfizer candidate is one of the few currently at their final phase of human trials before approval. But according to experts, Africans may not get the vaccine as quickly, even after approval.
As wealthy countries spend billions of dollars hoarding and securing future supplies of vaccine candidates for their citizens, low-income economies are being pushed to the back of the queue.
But Dr. Nicaise Ndembi, a senior advisor the Africa Centers for Disease Control says in November that $5billion was secured from the Afrexim Bank to purchase Covid-19 vaccines with the hope to cover an additional 40% population in Africa according Quartz.
A survey conducted between August and December this year by the Africa CDC in partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has shown that a predominant majority of about 79% of respondents in the continent would take a COVID-19 vaccine if it were deemed safe and effective.