East African Community (EAC) member states are expected to receive some 39 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from the African Union (AU), which has secured a deal to procure 270 million of the same for all member states.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is also the AU chairman, Wednesday announced that from the provisional 270 million doses, at least 50 million will be available between April and June 2021.
The order, to be supplied by Pfizer, AstraZeneca (through an independent licensee, Serum Institute of India), and Johnson & Johnson, will be by far the largest on the continent to date. From the deal, Pfizer is supplying the continent with 50 million doses, Johnson & Johnson 120 million while AstraZeneca will be giving 100 million jabs. Deliveries should be made by the end of March.
The vaccines will be allocated on the continental platform the AU set up last year to make it easier for Africa’s 54 countries to pool their purchasing power and buy pandemic supplies in bulk.
Kenya is expected to receive 10.8 million doses from the African Union, bringing the total of expected doses for the country to 47 million as the Kenyan government has made a request to Gavi for 24 million doses while it plans to purchase 12 million from other sources.
Should the vaccines arrive in the country in time, the jabs will be enough to inoculate half of the country’s population by the end of the year.
Tanzania is set to receive 12 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from the AU, while Uganda is set to get 9.1 million, Rwanda 2.6 million, while Burundi and South Sudan have been allocated 2.3 million each.
According to the East African news, the African Union also plans to give Ethiopia 23.1 million doses and Somalia 3.2 million.