The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Thursday announced that African Union (AU) has secured an additional 400 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to be apportioned among its members.
Mid this month, the AU announced that it had secured 270 million vaccine doses.
“An additional 400 million doses of vaccines have been secured from the Serum Institute of India,” Africa CDC director John Nkengasong told a press conference.
“If you add 400 million doses to the 270 million doses, I think we are beginning to make very, very good progress.”
Added to these figures are doses that are being committed to African countries via COVAX, the globally-pooled vaccine procurement and distribution effort.
The Serum Institute of India is producing a vaccine using the Oxford-AstraZeneca formula, under the name of Covishield, for India and other developing countries.
The African Union announced in mid-January that at least 50 million vaccines would be available between April and June.
The rest will become available between this year and next year, said Nkengasong.
It is estimated Africa will need 1.5 billion vaccine doses to immunize 60% of its 1.3 billion inhabitants, costing between $7 and $10 billion.
Africa has been relatively spared compared to the rest of the globe, recording 3.4 million cases of Covid-19 and 87,000 deaths, according to the Africa CDC.
Nkengasong said Morocco, Egypt, Seychelles and Guinea reportedly had begun vaccinations, while Mauritius announced the start of its campaign this week.
MG/abj/APA