Covid 19: Africa not buying Enough Vaccines
STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS
Serum Institute of India (SII) chief Adar Poonawalla is likely to slash monthly production of its COVID-19 vaccine Covishieldby 50%, saying political leaders in Africa are stalling on buying vaccines even though there are now no shortages and only a tiny percentage of their people have been vaccinated. The Serum Institute chief says he only has orders for 20 million doses from all the African countries put together. “They’re going very slow, claiming that they’re waiting for donations from the US and other reasons. So there’s a bit of a disconnect,” he says.
“It’s a combination of vaccine hesitancy and nations not coming forward and placing orders in the way they claimed they would, particularly the African nations,” says Poonawalla.
Even in India, writes Paran Balakrishnan (former Features Editor, Business Standard; now Associate Editor, The Telegraph) “the Maharashtra government has said it will go slow on placing new orders for vaccines because it has 13 million pending doses of both Covishield and Covaxin. Similarly, Karnataka is figuring out what to do with plentiful stocks and is meeting representatives of private hospitals for discussions on this. Private hospitals around the country are finding themselves stuck with large unused stocks. The government has said it will take back unused stocks from the private hospitals.”
SII producing 280 million doses a month of Covishield
The Serum Institute of India has produced 88 per cent of the jabs that have been delivered in India. It is now producing 280 million doses a month of Covishield, made in partnership with Oxford University.
But the African nations have been particularly slow to deliver vaccinations and Airfinity, a health data firm, says that only 246 million doses out of the 384 million doses delivered have been administered. However, London-based Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, who heads the African Union’s vaccine procurement efforts insisted at the end of November that he has been unable to lay his hands on more vaccines. “We’re not asking for donations,” he said.
The World Health Organization has set a target of giving 70 per cent of the world’s population two jabs. Poonawalla points out that production will need to rise to meet that target. He says: “We obviously, as a vaccine industry, haven’t produced enough vaccines to meet that (goal). But on a monthly basis, if you look at the production versus the uptake, we’re definitely on the plus side in terms of supply.”
