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 The COVAX programme co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO)
for fair distribution of vaccines is now planning a shake-up as it
has been shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of
the poorest, internal documents seen by Reuters show.
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC)
director Nkenkasong said he was more worried about getting vaccines
in time regardless of where the doses came from.
"The third wave has come with severity that most countries were not
prepared for. So the third wave is extremely brutal," Nenkasong said
during a weekly online briefing.
"Let me put it bluntly, we are not winning in Africa this battle
against the virus so it does not really matter to me whether the
vaccines are from COVAX or anywhere. All we need is rapid access to
vaccines."
Nkenkasong said at least 20 countries were in the middle of the
third wave, with Zambia, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo
among those whose health facilities were being overwhelmed.
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 The COVAX programme's initial
lofty ambitions to act as a clearing house for
the world's vaccines, collecting from the
manufacturers in the most developed countries
and quickly distributing to those in the most
urgent need, have fallen flat.
About 1.12% people have been fully vaccinated on
a continent that has recorded 5.2 million
infections, Nkenkasong said.
More than half of poorer countries receiving
doses via COVAX do not have enough supplies to
continue, an official from the WHO said on
Monday.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by
Toby Chopra)
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