"This announcement allows countries to fine-tune their planning for covid-19 immunization campaigns. We urge African nations to increase readiness and finalize their national vaccination plans," said WHO regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, at the weekly press conference.
Covax, a joint initiative by WHO and the Alliance for Access to Vaccines (GAVI) to supply vaccines against covid-19 to middle and low-income countries, released, on Wednesday, the indicative map of the first phase of distribution of doses.
At this stage, it is planned to distribute around 337 million vaccines to 145 countries, including seven Portuguese-speaking countries - Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste - which together will have access to about 14 million doses.
Covax expects to begin shipping the first 90 million vaccines in late February, early March.
Matshidiso Moeti therefore underlined the importance of countries being ready to receive them.
"Regulatory processes, cold chain systems and distribution plans must be in place to ensure that vaccines are safely shipped from ports of arrival to immunization sites. We cannot afford to waste a single dose," he warned. she.
For what will be the largest mass vaccination campaign ever in Africa, AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccines will be used, which is still awaiting authorization for emergency use by WHO.
The organization is currently reviewing the vaccine and the result is expected soon.
In addition to these, approximately 320 thousand doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were attributed to four African countries - Cape Verde, Rwanda, South Africa and Tunisia.
This vaccine has already received WHO approval for emergency use, but requires ultra-refrigeration systems (-70 degrees Celsius) for its transport, storage and distribution.
To gain access to a limited initial vaccine volume from Pfizer-BioNTech, 13 African countries submitted proposals and were evaluated by a committee based on current mortality rates, new cases and trends, and the ability to deal with cold chain needs required by the vaccine.
Covax officials warned that the vaccine distribution map is indicative and that final shipments will be based on the production capacity of vaccine manufacturers and the level of countries' readiness to receive them.
Early-stage vaccines are expected to allow countries to immunize 3% of the priority African population, including health workers and other vulnerable groups, in the first half of 2021.
As production capacity increases and more vaccines become available, Covax's goal is to vaccinate at least 20% of Africans, providing up to 600 million doses by the end of 2021.
To complement Covax's efforts, the African Union has announced that it has secured 670 million vaccines for the continent, which will be distributed in 2021 and 2022, as countries obtain financing, notably through the African Export-Import Bank (AfreximBank).
According to the African Union Center for Disease Prevention and Control (Africa CDC), 16 countries on the continent have already joined the platform created for vaccine pre-reservations, having ordered 114 million doses.
The seven Portuguese-speaking countries included in the Covax distribution list will receive in the first distribution phase a global number of 13,813,050 doses of vaccines against covid-19.
Most go to Brazil, which will receive 10,672,800 vaccines from AstraZeneca / Oxford, being, globally, the fifth country that will receive more doses, after India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia.
Angola and Mozambique will receive, respectively, 2,544,000 and 2,424,000 doses of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine, with the vaccines in Angola coming from the Instituto Sérum da Índia as well as the 100,800 doses assigned to Timor-Leste.
Guinea-Bissau will receive 144,000 doses, Cape Verde 108,000 and São Tomé and Príncipe 96,000 doses of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine.
In addition, Cape Verde will receive 5850 doses from Pfizer-BioNTech.
"Africa has seen for too long other regions launching covid-19 vaccination campaigns. This planned launch is a fundamental first step towards ensuring that the continent has equitable access to vaccines," said Matshidiso Moeti.
