{"id":114518,"date":"2021-05-18T18:56:33","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T18:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=114518"},"modified":"2021-05-18T18:56:33","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T18:56:33","slug":"indias-halt-to-vaccine-exports-very-problematic-for-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/indias-halt-to-vaccine-exports-very-problematic-for-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"India's halt to vaccine exports 'very problematic' for Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – An extended halt to exports of COVID-19 vaccines from India, where authorities are battling a wave of domestic infections, risks derailing vaccination efforts already underway in Africa, one of the continent\u2019s top health officials said on Tuesday.<\/p> India stopped vaccine exports a month ago and, according to a Reuters report earlier on Tuesday, is now unlikely to resume major exports before October, dealing a major setback to the global COVAX initiative on which many poor countries rely.<\/p>\n Africa has lagged far behind other regions due to supply issues and meagre financial resources but had planned to vaccinate 30-35% of its population by the end of the year and 60% within the next two to three years.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is very problematic as it means unpredictability of our vaccination programmes and a serious risk of not achieving our stated target… on time,\u201d the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, wrote to Reuters.<\/p>\n Those targets primarily relied on supplies from the global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, which has depended heavily on AstraZeneca shots produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII).<\/p>\n \u201cGiven India\u2019s huge challenges, it will be impossible to expect anything soon,\u201d Nkengasong said.<\/p>\n There have been at least 4,742,000 reported infections and 126,000 reported deaths caused by the novel coronavirus in Africa so far, according to a Reuters tally.<\/p>\n And while the pandemic\u2019s impact has been less acute than in the United States, Europe and now India, Africa\u2019s largely unvaccinated population of over 1 billion remains vulnerable, experts say.<\/p>\n COVAX had already begun distributing millions of doses of the two-shot AstraZeneca vaccine to countries across Africa. But those initial shipments have now been largely exhausted, with around 80% having been administered as a first dose, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).<\/p>\n Most countries using COVAX will now surpass the 12-week maximum interval recommended between the first and second dose of AstraZeneca unless 20 million doses are delivered by the end of June and another 5 million in July, the WHO said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe supply gap could be closed if countries with adequate supplies set aside a percentage of vaccines for COVAX,\u201d said Richard Mihigo, coordinator of the WHO\u2019s Immunization and Vaccines Development Programme in Africa.<\/p>\n A deal negotiated with Johnson & Johnson by the African Union should supply Africa with 400 million vaccine doses beginning in the third quarter of this year.<\/p>\n Several countries\u2019 health officials told Reuters they had yet to receive updated information on expected arrival dates for COVAX shots. Some are now weighing their options.<\/p>\n Ethiopia, for example, has received just 2.2 million of the 7.6 million AstraZeneca shots it was due to get through COVAX by the end of April.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were expecting some delays, but not to this scale. As a country we must search other options,\u201d Muluken Yohannes, a senior adviser to Ethiopia\u2019s health ministry, told Reuters.<\/p>\n