ACCRA, Ghana (AP) – Ghana receives first world delivery of UN-sponsored coronavirus vaccine COVAX initiative Wednesday: The long-awaited start of a program that so far has had no hope of ensuring that the world’s most vulnerable people are shot quickly.
The arrival of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the West African country marks the start of the largest vaccine supply and operation in history, according to the World Health Organization and UNICEF. It is a backbone of efforts to end the pandemic and has been hailed as the first time the world delivers a much-desired vaccine to poor countries during a continuous outbreak.
“Today marks the historic moment for which we have been planning and working so hard. With the first dose shipment, we can fulfill the promise of COVAX facilities to ensure that people from less affluent countries are not left behind in the race for life-saving vaccines, ”said Henrietta Fore, executive director of ‘UNICEF vaccines.
But the initiative, created to ensure fair access to vaccines in low- and middle-income countries, has been hampered by the global supply of very limited doses and logistical problems. While it aims to deliver 2 billion shots this year, it currently has only legally binding agreements for several hundred million shots.
It already lost its own goal of starting vaccinations in poor countries, at the same time as vaccines were deployed in rich countries. The global campaign so far has been extremely uneven: 80% of the 210 million doses administered worldwide so far were administered in just ten countries, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week.
This delay caused many poorer countries to rush to sign their own agreements, which can undermine COVAX’s efforts to get shots at the most needy people.
And some countries cannot afford to go there alone.
Ghana is among the 92 countries that will receive free vaccines through the WHO-led initiative; Gavi, a group of vaccines; and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Another 90 countries and eight territories have agreed to pay.
Ghana, a nation of 30 million people that has recorded 81,245 cases and 584 deaths since the start of the pandemic, plans to start vaccinations on March 2. The neighboring Ivory Coast will be the next to receive vaccines and will also deploy them from next week.
Although it celebrated receiving the first doses, Ghana pointed the long way ahead.
“The Ghanaian government remains determined to ensure the well-being of all Ghanaians and is making frantic efforts to acquire adequate vaccines to cover the entire population through bilateral and multilateral agencies,” the information minister said in a statement. functions of Ghana, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
This frenzy has been echoed across the continent by 1.3 billion people as deliveries have been delayed and African nations have struggled to get vaccines from various sources. Only seven out of 54 have started vaccination campaigns.
“If you look at which countries have gotten vaccines for their citizens, they are all in the developed industrialized world. And we are happy for its citizens. But we also want everyone who needs to protect themselves from the pandemic to get the vaccine, “UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa Marie-Pierre Poirier, who described the deliveries in Ghana, told The Associated Press of a historic moment. “This is critical to ending the pandemic, because until everyone is safe, no one is safe.”
The target for 2021 is 1.3 billion doses in 92 countries and up to 2 billion taking into account other countries, he said.
While 20% of the most vulnerable population being vaccinated is the current target, he said the hope is that this will increase significantly.
“I think more actors, once they feel a little reassured about their own population, are sure to come and help us so we can catch up,” he said.
Some activists have also expressed serious concern about the goal of the COVAX initiative to give just enough shots to cover between 20% and 30% of the population of countries receiving given doses. They have warned that even if the program is successful in distributing these vaccines, these countries will remain vulnerable to continued coronavirus outbreaks, as most experts believe that at least 70% of people will need protection against the virus to achieve herd immunity.
And experts have noted that even if the richest countries achieve a certain level of immunity to the herd, everyone will remain vulnerable as long as there are bags of COVID-19 anywhere in the world.
“We will not end the pandemic anywhere unless we end it everywhere,” said Tedros, the WHO leader. “Today is an important first step towards realizing our shared vision of vaccine equity, but it’s just the beginning. We still have a lot of work to do with governments and manufacturers to ensure that vaccination of vaccine workers health and the elderly are in place in all countries for the first 100 days of this year ”.
The vaccines delivered on Wednesday are the first of nearly seven million doses the Serum Institute produces in India for about 20 countries, according to the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Over the next few weeks, COVAX needs to deliver vaccines to all participating economies to ensure that people at highest risk are protected, live where they live,” said Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi. “We now need governments and companies to back up COVAX and help us defeat this virus as quickly as possible.”
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Petesch reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Maria Cheng in Toronto and Jamey Keaten in Geneva collaborated.
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