NAIROBI, Kenya
Kenya is among 90
developing countries to be aided financially to get Covid-19 vaccines next
year.
Experts project a vaccine will be
available next year, but health workers will get priority.
The access project is led by Gavi,
the Geneva-based Vaccine Alliance, which also funds vaccines for routine
immunisation in Kenya.
Gavi is a public–private global
health partnership that increases access to immunisation in poor countries.
Gavi said 75 countries have
volunteered to buy their own vaccines and also support 90 lower income
countries.
This will be done though the Covax
Facility, a Gavi mechanism to guarantee rapid, fair and equitable access to
Covid-19 vaccines worldwide.
Together, this group of as many as
165 countries represents more than 60 per cent of the world’s population.
“Covax is the only truly global
solution to the Covid-19 pandemic,” Gavi CEO Dr Seth Berkley said.
“For the vast majority of countries,
whether they can afford to pay for their doses or require assistance, it means
receiving a guaranteed share of doses. They will not be pushed to the back of
the queue, as we saw during the H1N1 pandemic a decade ago," he
said.
Covax is co-led by Gavi, the
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi) and the World Health
Organization. They work in partnership with developed and developing country
vaccine manufacturers.
Covax will invest in manufacturing
upfront so vaccines can be deployed at scale as soon as they are proven
successful. It will pool procurement and purchasing power to achieve sufficient
volumes to end the acute phase of the pandemic by 2021.
“Our aspiration is to be able to
vaccinate the most vulnerable 20 per cent of the population of every country
that participates, regardless of income level, by the end of 2021,” Cepi Chief
Executive Officer Dr Richard Hatchett said.
He said by the end of 2021, they plan
to deliver two billion doses of safe, effective vaccines that have passed
regulatory approvals.
These vaccines will be delivered
equally to all participating countries, proportional to their populations. It
will at first prioritise healthcare workers, then expand to cover 20 per cent.
Further doses will then be made
available based on country need, vulnerability and the Covid-19 threat.
The Covax Facility will also maintain
a buffer of doses for emergency and humanitarian use, including dealing with
severe outbreaks before they spiral out of control.
“The Covid-19 pandemic, like every
health crisis, also presents us with opportunities,” WHO chief scientist Dr
Soumya Swaminathan said.
“A vaccine that is affordable and
accessible to all will help us address systemic health inequalities. We need
all countries to support Covax to achieve this goal and end to the acute phase
of the pandemic.”
The initiative has already raised about $600 million (Sh60 billion) against an initial target of $2 billion (Sh200 billion) from high-income donors and the private sector.
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