northern edge, Algeria, Gaza, but also Ghana and now Côte d’Ivoire: the UN Covax system, intended to ensure the equitable sharing of anti-Covid vaccines, is accelerating. “Côte d’Ivoire is happy and proud to be the second African country after Ghana to benefit from the vaccines provided through the Covax facility. This is an important step in our common fight against the common enemy that is Covid-19 ”, welcomed the Ivorian Minister of Health and Public Hygiene, Eugène Aka Aouélé from the tarmac at the airport. international Abidjan-Félix Houphouët Boigny where the Emirates airline chartered by Unicef landed a little earlier.
Green light for the vaccination campaign
In total, the country received 504,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine on Friday, these are the first doses to arrive in this West African country. “The vaccines we received today will allow us to contain the pandemic and strengthen the health of our population,” added the minister, specifying that the vaccinations will begin this Monday, March 1 in his country and will only concern the district of ‘Abidjan which is the epicenter of the epidemic with 95% of confirmed positive cases in the country.
Côte d’Ivoire, populated by 25 million inhabitants, recorded more than 32,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus on Friday and nearly 190 deaths. The figures have been increasing for several weeks, but apart from the obligation to wear a mask in closed places and the encouragement to respect barrier gestures, no other restrictive measure has been imposed for the moment.
Africa picks up the pace with the objective of restarting its economy
With neighboring Ghana which received 600,000 doses on Wednesday, Côte d’Ivoire is one of the first countries to benefit from vaccines funded by the Covax system aimed at providing anti-Covid vaccines to 20% of the population this year. nearly 200 participating countries and territories. It includes a financing mechanism that allows 92 nations with a low or medium level of economic development to have access to precious doses and was put in place to try to prevent rich countries from monopolizing all the resources. vaccines. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed the arrival of these vaccines in Africa, but however accused some rich countries of “undermining” the Covax device and of “approaching manufacturers for ensure access to additional vaccine doses ”.
The delivery of vaccine doses to Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana comes after the launch of the vaccination campaign in Senegal on Tuesday, following South Africa, Zimbabwe, Seychelles, Mauritius, from Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Algeria, Morocco and Egypt. To help speed up the vaccination of 1.3 billion Africans, the African Union (AU) said it had secured 270 million doses of Covid vaccine to distribute this year.
The deployment of Covid-19 vaccines in Africa has accelerated with the ambition to contain the virus and restart the continent’s economy, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said the continent has stepped up procurement of vaccines to inoculate groups at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus. “The deployment of COVID-19 vaccines is an incredible and long-awaited leap forward for African countries who have spent months preparing while rich countries are far ahead in immunization,” Ms. Moeti said in a statement released Thursday evening in Nairobi. 24 African countries should receive their doses purchased through the Covax mechanism in the next two weeks, said Ms. Moeti. “The Covax is a testament to fairness at the global level and it cannot be stressed enough that ending the pandemic will require all countries to progress together on vaccination. No country will be safe until all countries are safe, ”Ms. Moeti argued.
The majority of countries in Africa participate in the Covax mechanism and have put in place strong systems to facilitate a massive injection of the Covid-19 vaccine. “Covid-19 vaccines will help save lives and spur economic recovery. There is a need to invest more in equity in vaccines, including the sharing of surpluses by rich countries, ”Ms. Moeti said.
According to Moeti, 600 million doses purchased through the Covax mechanism will be delivered to Africa in 2021 to help immunize vulnerable groups such as frontline health workers, the elderly and the terminally ill.
A more energetic public awareness is essential to strengthen the acceptance of the vaccine in Africa where the appearance of new variants, combined with the relaxation of sanitary containment measures, slows down the decline in contamination curves, she said. . In the wake of Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa with 200 million inhabitants, will receive nearly four million doses of vaccine against Covid-19 on Tuesday.
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