The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has delivered 261,600 doses of the Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccine to Egypt through the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT).

AVAT was launched by the African Union (AU) to secure Covid-19 vaccines for AU member states and attain a target immunisation of 60 percent of Africa’s population.

UNICEF’s role within AVAT is to procure and deliver Covid-19 vaccines to AU member States. Other implementing partners are the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC) and the World Bank.

‘On [05] August, the first monthly shipments will arrive in several member mtates, and shipments will continue for a total of 6.4 [million] doses shipped in August’, Africa CDC said in a statement on its website.

‘Monthly shipments will continue and be continually ramped up, with a target of delivering almost 50 [million] vaccines before the end of December.

‘By January, the number of vaccines being released will be in excess of 25 [million] per month. In collaboration with the Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP), UNICEF is providing logistical and delivery services to the Member States’.

Egypt’s vaccination producer and distributor, Vacsera, has already begun local manufacturing of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine and is ready to localise the vaccine industry in the continent.

In July, the Maghreb nation’s health and population ministry said that it had opened 125 vaccination centres for people travelling abroad and vaccinated over five million people.

The country’s Minister of Health, Hala Zayed, said on Tuesday that Egypt was part of a plan with AVAT and Afreximbank to diversify and expand access to the vaccines.

Amnesty International, last month, criticised Egyptian authorities’ ‘haphazard handling’ of the country’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout and failure to outline a clear national strategy.

‘Egypt’s vaccine rollout has been blighted by the authorities’ lack of clear strategy and transparency leading to delays and backlog, as well as failure to reach out to those most in need or to tackle vaccine hesitancy through targeted awareness campaigns’, the Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, Philip Luther, said.

‘We call on the government to ensure that priority groups are, in fact, prioritized, and that the distribution plan is inclusive, accessible and non-discriminatory’.

Sources: Africa CDC Egypt Today

Photo source: Afreximbank