By Alpha Abu
Sierra Leone is to receive another consignment of vaccines, this time the AstraZeneca (AZ), which was originally invented at Oxford University in the UK. 90,000 doses of the drug licensed and manufactured by Serum Institute of India are expected to arrive in Freetown on Monday 8 March 2021.
A statement from COVAX Facility says the first round of distribution involves 237 million doses of the AZ/Oxford vaccines to some 140 countries around the world.
COVAX states: “This first round of allocation took place as per the fair allocation mechanism for COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX Facility, which was developed by WHO in consultation with its Member States. This allocation framework for fair and equitable access to COVID-19 health products sets forth the criteria and approach to allocation of vaccines through the COVAX Facility”.
A Joint Allocation Taskforce, staff from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and WHO, as well as the Independent Allocation Vaccine Group discussed and determined the framework for the entire process of allocation and distribution of the vaccines. According to the statement, deliberations “resulted in consensus and no divergent views were recorded on the proposed allocation”, which was then approved by the WHO Deputy Director-General.
COVAX is a global collaborative initiative to speed up the various efforts at developing, producing and making a fair access to covi-19 tests, treatment and vaccines. WHO, Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations form the grouping COVAX.
The Chinese government on Thursday 25 February 2021 donated 200,000 Sinopharm vaccines to Sierra Leone. Since the country recorded its first case of the virus on 31 March 2020, the number of recorded deaths is 79.
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