SADC call for pooled procurement of COVID-19 vaccines in the region

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