COVAX has been trending in stories about the COVID-19 pandemic in recent days, particularly in relation to the shipment of vaccines to Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, the first to arrive in Africa.
Here’s a recap of what COVAX is, and why it is so important:
- WHO says that the program has supported the fastest, most coordinated, and successful global effort in history to fight disease. The aim is to distribute two billion doses, mostly to poorer countries, in 2021, and immunize 27 percent of their citizens.
- Funded by richer countries and private donors, who have raised more than $2 billion, COVAX ensures that people living in poorer countries would not be left out. Some 92 low and lower-income countries are purchasing vaccines with support from COVAX, and it is expected that the poorest citizens will be vaccinated free of charge.
- Some 1.2 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires ultra-cold chain storage are to be delivered to 18 countries in the first quarter of 2021, out of an agreed total of 40 million. A much larger rollout of around 336 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford jab will be dispatched to nearly all countries that have signed up to the COVAX scheme, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
- On 24 February around 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, produced under license in India, arrived in Ghana. This shipment was swiftly followed by the arrival of more than half a million AstraZeneca/Oxford doses in Côte d’Ivoire.
- By the end of 2021, it is hoped that, with the availability of more vaccines and increased production capacity, 600 million doses will have been rolled out, and some 20 percent of the African population will have been vaccinated.
- WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghrebeyesus has pointed out that COVAX is not a charity effort: in a highly interconnected global economy, effective vaccines, widely available in all countries, are the fastest way to end the pandemic, kick-start the global economy, and ensure a sustainable recovery. In the WHO chief’s words, “we sink or we swim together”.
