Seven Portuguese-language countries will receive about 14 million Covid-19 vaccines from Covax, according to an indicative distribution map released on Wednesday and estimated to have the first doses on the ground by the end of February.
Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe and East Timor will receive in the first phase of distribution a global number of 13,813,050 doses of vaccines according to the Global Alliance for Vaccines (Gavi) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Most go to Brazil, which will receive 10,672,800 vaccines from AstraZeneca/Oxford, and is the fifth largest country to receive the most doses globally, after India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia.
In this first phase, Angola and Mozambique will receive, respectively, 2,544,000 and 2,424,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, with Angola’s vaccines coming from the Sérum Institute in India as well as the 100,800 doses allocated to East Timor.
Guinea-Bissau will receive 144,000 doses, Cabo Verde 108,000 and São Tomé and Príncipe 96,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine.
In addition, Cabo Verde will receive 5,850 doses from Pfizer/BioNTech, and together with South Africa and Rwanda, will be among the first African countries to receive this vaccine, which requires ultra cool conditions for transport and storage.
Covax, an initiative created to provide vaccines against Covid-19, particularly to low- and middle-income countries, estimates to have the first vaccines in late February, early March.
The vaccines will be distributed “in proportion to the population,” WHO immunisation expert Ann Lindstrand said at a press conference.
At this stage, 337 million vaccines will be distributed to 145 countries listed by Covax.
Virtually all of those doses are from the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, with 96 million being produced directly by this pharmaceutical and 240 million by the Serum Institute of India.
Of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, 1.2 million doses will be distributed in this initial phase, Gavi director Seth Berkley said.
“Additional volumes of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses will be available in the second quarter and then, in accordance with the advance purchase agreement signed between Gavi and Pfizer-BioNTech for a maximum of 40 million doses,” they said.
“The total doses cover an average of 3.3% of the population of 145 participants,” in line with the target of 3% coverage in the first six months of 2021, “which is sufficient to protect the most vulnerable groups, such as health workers,” they stressed.
However, they warned, these forecasts are indicative, may change and depend on a number of factors, such as the state of preparedness of countries to receive them and to initiate vaccination programmes.
Moreover, for distribution, WHO still needs to certify vaccines.
To date, the organisation has only validated the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, which has already been authorised by national authorities in several countries.
However, it has not yet given the green light to the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine.
Nevertheless, Ann Lindstrand stressed the importance of being able to go ahead with vaccination in developing countries.
“This is fantastic. We can start vaccinating. It will start in the coming weeks,” she said.
Lusa
