Tebogo Msimanga |
The African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) established by African Union Chair President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday reported to a special meeting of the AU Bureau of the Assembly that it has secured a provisional 270 million vaccine doses for African countries.
At least 50 million doses will be available for the crucial period of April to June 2021.
In a statement released by Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Tyrone Seale, it said the vaccines will be supplied by Pfizer, AstraZeneca (through an independent licensee, Serum Institute of India) and Johnson & Johnson.
Scientists at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) have advised that the vaccine need to reach at least 60% of the population to substantially slow the spread of the disease.
President Ramaphosa said “I wish to commend the members of the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, Afreximbank, Africa CDC and all those who have been working tirelessly to secure these vaccines for the people of Africa.”
Ramaphosa added that there is a long road ahead, but Africa is seeing progress in shared effort to defeat this disease.
