8.7 million doses of the 270 million COVID-19 vaccines secured by the African Union (AU) this month have been allocated to Zambia and this could rise to 25 million doses by December 2021, the Zambian AU mission said on Sunday.
President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, who serves as AU chair, has said that Pfizer, AstraZeneca, through the Serum Institute of India, and Johnson & Johnson will supply the vaccines secured by the AU.
They will be allocated according to the population size of countries.
Zambia’s ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the AU, Emmanuel Mwamba said in a statement that “If member states have to buy individually, they have to wait until July 2022, but through this mechanism, we can access the vaccines by April 2021,”.
“The vaccines will require approval from the Africa CDC and further approval from local regulatory and other approval mechanisms,” he said, referring to the AU’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines will be 8.7 million doses and the allocation of Zambia may increase to 25 million doses by December 2021 when the J&J vaccine comes on board, Mwamba added.
According to a draught briefing on the plan prepared by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and given to Reuters, African countries would pay between $3 and $10 per vaccine dose for access to the shots secured by the AU.
Ramaphosa suggested that agreements were made with the bank last week to help Member States that want access to vaccinations
Educator, writer and legal researcher at Alafarika for Studies and Consultancy.