US SHIPS MORE THAN 2 MLN MORE COVID VACCINES TO AFRICA

Thu 26 August 2021:

The White House announced Thursday that the US is sending more than two million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to Algeria, Ghana, and Yemen, bolstering efforts to prevent a third wave of the pandemic across Africa.

The supplies, which will arrive before the end of the week, according to a White House official, will be the first from the US to all three countries. They follow similar deliveries to other African countries, including Nigeria and the hard-hit South Africa earlier this month.

Taken from surplus in the US stockpile, 604,800 doses of Johnson & Johnson will go to Algeria, just over 1.2 million doses of Moderna to Ghana, and another 151,200 J&J doses to Yemen, said the official, who asked not to be identified.

All the shipments are being made through Covax, the distributor backed by the World Health Organization and the Gavi vaccine alliance.

President Joe Biden, who took office promising to focus on getting Americans vaccinated after suffering the world’s highest toll from coronavirus, has since expanded his goal to make the United States the vaccine “arsenal” internationally.

The “administration understands that putting an end to this pandemic requires eliminating it around the world,” the White House official said.

Biden has come under fire for authorizing Americans to get booster shots starting in September, but US officials say there is enough capacity, even while maintaining the flow of donations abroad.

According to the official, the fresh shipments would bring the total number of US shots shipped to Africa to more than 25 million.

Africa is facing a third wave of infections and is falling behind in the race for mass vaccination.

Less than 2% of individuals on the continent are fully vaccinated, with some countries needing to trash unused vaccines due to a lack of health infrastructure to give them or high vaccine skepticism.

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