No Vaccines, yet P2 billion spent on buying them
Delta Variant remains dominant - Dr. Matshaba
The government has to date invested a total of USD19, 234, 882 to procure Covid vaccines from various platforms, Health and Wellness Minister Dr. Edwin Dikoloti, told Parliament this week.
A breakdown of the total shows that by February 2021, the government had paid a total of USD10, 302, 882 to the pooled procurement facilities of COVAX and AVATT, while a further USD8, 932, 000 has to date been paid directly to the manufacturers.
“Contrary to our expectation of timely delivery of the vaccine this has not translated despite the payments, which is explained by the existing global supply constraints,” he lamented.
COVID- 19 Vaccine Global Access Facility ( the “COVAX Facility”), was launched in April 2020 with the aim of accelerating the development and manufacturing of COVID- 19 vaccines, and guaranteeing fair and equitable access for every country in the world. The goal of the Facility is to deliver at least two billion doses of safe, effective vaccines to all participating countries by the end of 2021. Botswana joined this facility as a self- financing country ( due to its Upper- Middle Income status) in October 2020.
“An upfront payment of USD3, 292, 800.00 was made then, which assured that about 940, 800 vaccine doses, sufficient to vaccinate 20 percent of our population can be purchased through the Facility. These doses are expected to be delivered in 2021,” Dr. Dikoloti told Parliament.
Dr. Dikoloti added that through the facility, Botswana was able to receive a total of 82, 290 doses ( representing a total of 16.1 percent of the vaccines used in Botswana) of the COVID- 19 vaccines being 19, 890 BioTech Pfizer and 62, 400 doses of AstraZeneca of which 38, 400 is still pending to be delivered by August 2021.
The minister indicated that Vaccine Acquisition Task Team ( AVATT) was established through the African Union ( AU) and its main goal was to identify concrete actions needed to secure timely, efficient, and effective deployment of COVID- 19 vaccines in Africa.
Botswana joined this platform in April 2021 and paid an advance amount of USD7, 010, 082 according to the minister.
He said they also considered engaging directly with vaccine manufacturers so as to increase the chances of securing the vaccines for Batswana.
“Let me recognise our healthy international diplomatic relations with different countries which resulted in us receiving a total of 230, 000 doses of COVID- 19 doses.
“We received 30, 000 COVISHIELD from the Indian Government and a total of 200, 000 doses of SINOVAC from the Chinese Government,” Dr. Dikoloti said.
Meanwhile, Scientific Advisor to the COVID- 19 Presidential Taskforce Team Dr. Mogomotsi Matshaba has reiterated that the Delta Variant currently remains dominant in the country with an infection rate of 88 percent.
He said this is not only experienced in Botswana but also in developed economies like America and Britain. He said the symptoms continue to vary from one country to the other.
It has been established through few studies that were undertaken that the Delta variant is killing people than other variants.
“We continue to record high infection rates from this variant. The more we have infections, the more we have deaths in the country. This however does not mean the variant is deadly but because of the way it is transmitted.
“Delta has been established that it is transmitted fast when compared to others. In March 2020 we did not know much about variants.
“We experienced variants at the end of last year where the first one was discovered in South Africa. But we have since noticed that the Delta Variant is powerful than others,” Dr Matshaba said this week when giving an update of COVID- 19.
Dr. Matshaba revealed that the COVID- 19 virus has so far spread across most of the zones in the country. He explained that most areas and zones were affected in the past week.
“We do not change the colours on our map each week unless there is a huge change in our numbers. Even though all zones are marked white on the map, this does not mean the zones are the same in terms of the virus and the facilities.
“It is different per zone. We came up with zones looking at population, activities, and facilities. We use the zones to monitor the disease”, Dr. Matshaba explained.
Regarding vaccines, Dr. Matshaba stated that when one takes a certain vaccine for the first dose, the expectation is that the second dose should be the same vaccine.
He revealed that in other developed countries they have started mixing the vaccines. You can be able to take a second dose of a vaccine that is different from the first dose, he said.
He explained that in Botswana that is not applicable because the vaccines are coming in low volumes. He said the country might start doing that once the vaccines arrive in high volumes.