Zambia has received 8.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the African Union under the COVID-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), a government official confirmed on Sunday, reported CGTN Africa.
The African body created the AVATT in August 2020 to ensure that the African continent will be able to get sufficient vaccine doses to achieve herd immunity.
Emmanuel Mwamba, Zambia’s Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the AU, said the country’s vaccine allocation may increase to 25 million doses by December 2021.
He said that the initiative has been created to secure the necessary vaccines and blend financing resources for achieving Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination strategy which targets vaccinating a minimum of 60 percent of Africa’s population.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who serves as AU chair, has said the vaccines secured by the AU will be supplied by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, through the Serum Institute of India, and Johnson & Johnson. They will be allocated according to the countries’ population size.
Notably, a financing facility has also been created under the AVATT, the Advance Procurement Commitment (APC) facility that is supported by the African Import and Export Bank.
The mechanism aims to mitigate the protracted financial and socio-economic costs of the coronavirus pandemic and ensure a timely, equitable, and cost-effective availability of COVID-19 vaccine supplies to all African countries. The vaccine doses will be distributed through the African Medical Supplies.
Zambia has witnessed a surge in COVID-19 cases during the second wave of the pandemic.
The country recorded 745 new cases out of 7,903 tests done in the last 24 hours, according to health ministry figures. The total number of coronavirus cases has increased to 45,337. About 1,667 patients were discharged during the same period bringing the total recoveries to 35,960. Zambia, however, recorded 12 new deaths during the same period bringing the total deaths to 639.
