Africa CDC says nations must act fast to prepare for Covid-19 jabs

ADDIS ABABA - African governments must take urgent steps to prepare for distribution of coronavirus vaccines, the continent's health watchdog said on Thursday, after the African Union announced it had secured 270 million doses.

"We cannot wait. This is not a polio or measles vaccination. We have to do it quick. Our economies are down, our people are dying," John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), told a press conference.

"There's absolutely no reason for accelerated preparations not to occur," he added. The African Union (AU) deal announced on Wednesday is intended to benefit countries unable to finance their own immunisation campaigns.

Governments will be able to make financing arrangements through the African Export-Import Bank that could allow for instalment payments over a fiveyear period.

The doses - to be supplied by Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson - will complement vaccines secured via Covax, the globally-pooled vaccine procurement and distribution effort.

At least 50 million doses secured under the AU deal are expected to be available from April through June.

But Nkengasong said member states needed to act fast to organise storage sites in major cities, train health workers, secure supplies like needles and create effective systems to record who has received doses.

He said governments would be able to start ordering vaccines through an AU platform in the coming days.

Africa has recorded around 3.1 million Covid-19 cases, or 3.5 percent of the global total, and around 75, 000 deaths, or 2.4 percent of the global total, according to Africa CDC data.