Botswana’s health ministry on Friday said about 15,000 people will not be able to get the second dose of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in time, so they will be vaccinated either with Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, reported Reuters.
The Botswana government had signed up for 940,800 of the two-shot Astrazeneca vaccines under the World Health Organization (WHO) backed COVAX initiative. Under the COVAX scheme, the country has received only 62,400 AstraZeneca and 19,890 Pfizer doses so far.
The COVAX scheme had previously committed to delivering 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine to 180 nations by 2021. But, the reality is that only 118 million vaccine doses have been delivered so far.
“The shortfall in the AstraZeneca vaccine is about 15,000 doses, resulting in people of the same number likely to get their second doses beyond the initially anticipated 12 weeks,” Botswana’s health ministry said in a statement.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is the cheapest coronavirus vaccine and the most readily available vaccine too. It does not require to be kept at extremely low temperatures, so it is easier to transport and store them too.
The health ministry’s statement said that the government has taken the decision that all those awaiting their second doses will be inoculated with Moderna or Pfizer vaccines if any of the two become available earlier than the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Botswana’s health authorities have been administering AstraZeneca vaccine, Sinovac as well as Pfizer vaccines. About 173,512 of the country’s 1.6 million people have received one dose, while 111,164 are fully vaccinated, according to official figures.
On Tuesday, President Mokgweetsi Masisi said Botswana was expecting to receive 50,000 Moderna vaccines in the coming weeks and 500,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine by December 2021. The government has plans to vaccinate 80 percent of those aged 55 and above in the southern African country by the end of July.
