Covid-19: what access to a future vaccine for Africa?
According to official data, the Covid-19 has infected more than two million people and caused more than 48,000 deaths on the African continent.
REUTERS - Dado Ruvic
Text by: RFI Follow
5 mins
The first results on the effectiveness of several anti-Covid-19 vaccines, currently in the testing phase, give hope for the imminent arrival on the market of high-performance products.
But in developing countries, the worry of not having enough access is very present.
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During a press conference on November 19, the World Health Organization (WHO) detailed how Africa was preparing for the arrival of a vaccine, notably through
the Covax platform
, an initiative led by the Coalition for Innovations in Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI), Alliance for Vaccines (Gavi) and WHO.
According to official data, the Covid-19 has infected more than two million people and caused more than 48,000 deaths on the continent.
Although trials on potential future vaccines are not yet complete, Africa is already preparing for it.
The continent is used to organizing large-scale vaccination campaigns.
The process is known, the personnel trained and can be mobilized.
But there are still many challenges to be met, according to the WHO, whether in terms of logistics to be able to keep these vaccines at very low temperatures or in terms of communication so that the populations accept these vaccines.
Two billion doses
But the first difficulty, for developing countries, remains access to vaccines.
In total, 94 poor countries around the world, especially in Africa, rely on the Covax platform.
They pool their resources and international aid there to be able to compete with the rich countries in this highly contested market.
The WHO affirms that negotiations are already engaged with the Moderna laboratory.
Discussions with Pfizer should also begin to obtain doses as soon as the first vaccines are on the market.
"
Let's be realistic
," tempers the director of WHO Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti.
There will not be enough doses for everyone, so the WHO goal is to vaccinate 20% of the population in low-income countries by the end of 2021.
”This represents two billion doses to buy and to be distributed as a priority to healthcare workers, people at risk and possibly in sectors essential to the economy such as transport or tourism.
Dr @MoetiTshidi: "Innovations used to fight #Ebola, such as technologies to keep vaccines at super-cold temperatures, will be helpful when bringing a # COVID19 vaccine to #Africa."
- WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) November 19, 2020
To buy the vaccines and organize the injection campaigns, 5.1 billion dollars have already been collected within the Covax platform.
There is a lack of 4.2 billion to achieve these goals, according to Dr. Moeti.
Second wave?
After weeks of decline, the number of Covid-19 cases has increased again in 19 African countries for a month, especially in the Maghreb countries, Kenya, Ghana or South Africa, mainly in large centers urban.
According to the African Union's Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Africa CDC, between November 2 and 8, there was a 13% increase in cases across the continent.
For Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, if it is still too early to talk about the second wave, it is still necessary to prepare for it.
“
In some cases, the increase in the number of cases is linked to the weather, for example, when winter sets in
,” she explains.
People congregate indoors without taking precautions, as we have seen in Europe.
Sometimes it's linked to specific events.
There is an election and people get together in meetings or there is pressure from religious groups because people are tired of praying in isolation.
"
"
We must therefore anticipate now what we can call a second wave because economies are opening up again, people are
moving
around and are
fed up
with this social distancing
," continues Matshidiso Moeti.
And the holiday season could exacerbate this situation.
Above all, we must be able to locate cases.
Screening is fundamental.
We must be able to act in a targeted manner, locally and quickly, and we must re-mobilize the population and inform it to contain this second wave in our countries
”.
►Also read: Vaccine against Covid-19: the UN calls for equitable access to Covax
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