MAPUTO, Mozambique
Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states has been urged to pool resources and co-ordinate procurement and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in their countries.
The call was made by the bloc’s
Chairman, President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique in a statement on the COVID-19
pandemic last Friday as infections and deaths spiked across the region in
recent weeks.
The pooled procurement, President
Nyusi said, would be led by the SADC Committee of Health Ministers.
The SADC Chairman commended
members for their individual and collective efforts thus far to contain the
pandemic; adding that the manufacture of vaccines fuelled optimism that the
battle would be won.
“In this regard, we recommend the
Sadc Committee of Ministers of Health to establish a strong regional
collaborative strategy which pools resources together to urgently acquire the
vaccine for distribution to our citizens setting priorities in accordance with
the level of risk and enhance vaccine research capabilities and develop
regional manufacturing capacity for vaccines in the future,” President Nyusi
said.
He said member states must
intensify collaboration through better data sharing, policy harmonisation and
standardisation, and pooled procurement of essential medical and non-medical
equipment to address the pandemic in a more effective way.
“We must also reinforce our
health systems so that they remain ready to deliver other life-saving services
and better withstand future pandemics. In addition to health measures, we
should continue to embark on common regional strategies, harmonised and
synchronised initiatives; including electronic platforms to monitor the safe
cross border movement of people, vehicle and goods, as well as implementing
national action plans that address social consequences,” President Nyusi said.
The SADC Chairman partly
attributed the increase in infections to emerging strains of the virus, which
have higher transmissibility.
In the first two weeks of January
2021, new confirmed COVID-19 cases stood at 346,010 – accounting for 22 percent
of the total number of cases registered since the beginning of the pandemic in
the region in February 2020.
“In fact, more than 50 percent of
all new daily infections of COVID-19 on African continent have been reported in
the SADC region. Under this scenario, our health systems are rapidly reaching
the limit of their capacities; and the situation is expected to worsen in the
short term,” he said.
President Nyusi said the
socio-economic impact of the pandemic was being felt across education and
employment, in the process deepening poverty and its related underlying
consequences, including crime and gender-based violence. - Africa
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