Inequalities widen under Covax

JEMIMA BEUKES



WINDHOEK

As African countries weather renewed Covid-19 waves where cases have increased threefold, the Covax facility touted to provide much-needed relief has failed nations miserably.

Despite having paid more than a 50% deposit to the facility, Namibia has been left high and dry and has been forced to make do with vaccination donations from India and China, which have accounted for 80% of the vaccination roll-out doses.

Health ministry executive director Ben Nangombe yesterday said they have been delayed significantly by Covax, although they don’t link the devastating crisis to the delay in vaccine dosses.

“Namibia was one of the first countries to sign up for the Covax facility and we made payments and we have received one consignment, but it was also not the whole consignment we ordered. We have experienced delays in terms of deliveries. We wish we could have speedier deliveries of Covax because we ordered based on our plan,” he said.

According to him, government’s attempts to procure vaccines directly from suppliers to supplement its supply are soon to pay off.

“So far, the largest portion of Covid-19 vaccines used are those that have been donated. We have signed a purchase agreement with Sputnik and we have received the agreement for Sinopharm from the Attorney-General... We should be seeing deliveries in the coming weeks,” he said.

Failure

The Lancet Journal described the Covax facility, which was launched a year ago, as a “global heroic effort” that would “transcend the limits of human ingenuity” to ensure that vaccine development progressed quickly.

It highlighted how the facility was meant to supply vaccines to all based on solidarity and equity, but instead now relies on rich countries’ willingness to share their doses.

“The failure to entice wealthy countries to join Covax in large numbers has left the managers of the facility in an awkward situation. On one hand, not enough self-financing participants joined Covax to give it the massive buying power that was hoped. On the other, even though Covax is desperately short of vaccine, the facility is now contractually obliged to reserve one in five doses for a few rich countries,” the journal said.

It added that as of late May, Covax had supplied about 80 million doses to lower-middle income countries, while 22 million doses had gone to higher-income countries.

“Covax now aims to roll out 2.3 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide by early 2022. According to the latest Covax global supply forecast, dated 7 April, 485 million doses of these are earmarked for self-financing countries, while 1.8 billion doses will go to the 92 lower-income countries, with at least 1·3 billion of those doses available at no cost to their governments,” the report stated.

Sobering trajectory

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that the world needs at least 11 billion doses of vaccine to alleviate Covid-19, yet this demand is expected to climb even higher as more transmissible and deadly variants rear their heads.

Over the weekend, Dr Matshidiso Moeti from WHO Africa Region said the continent needs millions more doses right now to curb the third wave, fuelled by the deadly Delta variant.

“New cases are up by nearly 30% in the past week and deaths are up nearly 15%. So Africa is in the midst of a full-blown third wave and the sobering trajectory of surging cases should rouse everyone to urgent action,” she said.

She added that although vaccination is picking up, less than 1% of the continent’s population has been vaccinated, while seven countries have used up all their doses and seven more have used more than 80% of their doses.

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