Vaccine: Africa to get 50 million coronavirus doses from Pfizer and BionTech

Pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer and BioNTech will supply up to 50 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine to Africa, starting from March 2021.

This was disclosed by South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa in a Bloomberg report on Sunday. The report also disclosed that the South African Presidency warned that Africa had very limited options available for vaccines.

In a statement, Pfizer disclosed that it was implementing a scheme to send doses to developing nations and working with government to make it feasible, the company said it was “firmly committed to equitable access for Covid-19 vaccines.”

Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical company, Johnson and Johnson, plans to manufacture 300 million doses in South Africa. The South African President added that it was not sure if the vaccines would benefit Africa, as a separate deal would need to be negotiated.

What you should know

Nairametrics reported in December 2020, that the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, stated that Nigeria was ready for its Covid-19 vaccination strategy, revealing that the FG planned to acquire vaccines valued at N400 billion.

Nigeria’s for Finance Minister and WTO DG hopeful, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had also disclosed that negotiations were going on with Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers to get vaccines early enough to developing countries, including Nigeria, from January 2021.

The Federal Government said that the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19 would focus on the procurement of vaccines in the first quarter of 2021.