Zambia is among African Countries that has applied to receive their allocated quota of the Covax vaccine, but the country was assessed to have not been ready to receive the vaccine through the “Country Readiness and Delivery (CRD)” system.
A source at the African regional level has disclosed that Zambia has indeed applied for the Covid-19 Vaccine through the Covax facility and was among the first countries to do so. The vaccine is given based on preparedness and not time of application,
The source who is based at the regional Centre for Disease Control – CDC who asked for their identity to be withheld as they are not officially authorised to speak to the media revealed said there is no stipulated time that a country waits to receive the vaccine after it applies for it.
The allocation of the vaccine is dependent on whether the country is ready to receive the vaccine or not among other things. So, it’s more of being prepared being the key requirement before a country can start receiving its allocation.
Newly appointed health Minister Dr. Jonas Chanda when asked by the media why Zambia has not yet received the Covid 19 vaccine as has been the case for other African countries, stated that the country was still making assessments. He however did not mention that the country has already applied for the vaccine under COVAX.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, the source at The regional CDC said the Zambian government has applied for the vaccine but only they know when they will receive it because a country may apply for the vaccine and still be preparing themselves to receive it.
“Some countries received the vaccine two weeks after applying for it, others who applied before that have not yet gotten the vaccines, so I don’t think it has to do with when you submit, there are so many other things that the applicant have to go through. There are so many questions, is the country even ready”, the source told ZBT.
The source said COVAX supplies for Africa have now started coming in and early this month, about 10 African countries got their Covid-19 vaccines and many more should be able to get the vaccines soon.
The source said almost all African countries have applied for the vaccine and some have received them, adding that in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region has seen Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) get their vaccines early this month through COVAX.
The source further revealed that most African countries also applied simultaneously through the African Union – AU, but those vaccines have not started coming in yet. The source also noted that the Covax facility makes sure that vulnerable countries have access to the vaccine.
COVAX is the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator,co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization – WHO. Its aim is to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world, bridging the income gap.
According to the COVAX facility document made available to ZBT, only four (4) countries in Africa were allocated the vaccines in the first batch. These countries include Cabo Verde, Rwanda, Tunisia and South Africa. However, more African countries have now started receiving vaccines with Zambia’s vaccines allocated still not confirmed.
