Daily COVID Tracker: Nigeria to receive 4m vaccine doses and hoarding threatens COVAX

February 27

07:57 2021

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The World Health Organisation says Nigeria will receive four million doses of vaccine from COVAX vaccine programme next week. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Saturday morning.

Hoarding undermines COVAX programme

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, says countries making deals with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers who are providing vaccines to COVAX are undermining the effort to vaccinate vulnerable people.

“We need to accelerate the supply and distribution of vaccines, and we cannot do that if some countries continue to approach manufacturers who are producing vaccines that COVAX is counting on,” he said.

“These actions undermine COVAX and deprive health workers and vulnerable people around the world of life-saving vaccines.”

COVAX, which is co-led by WHO and GAVI Alliance, buys COVID-19 vaccines in bulk and send them to poorer countries that cannot compete with wealthy nations to secure doses.

So far, two countries – Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire – have received vaccine doses from COVAX.

Nigeria to receive four million doses of vaccine next week

Nigeria is expecting its first four million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX next week.

Walter Kazadi Mulombo, WHO representative in Nigeria, who disclosed this on Friday, said the country is expecting 14 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in total.

“WHO more recently supported the country to develop its vaccine deployment and vaccination plan for COVID-19,” Mulombo said during a virtual briefing.

“It has been used to secure through the COVAX Facility close to 14 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and four million of which are expected next week.”

Indonesia permits private vaccination scheme

Indonesia has approved a private vaccination scheme to run alongside its national programme.

The initiative, which is said to be the world’s first private vaccination scheme, will allow companies to buy state-procured vaccines to inoculate their staff.

Siti Nadia Tarmizi, a health ministry official, said on Friday “the scheme cannot disturb the rollout currently done by the government,” adding that there are still preparations to be made before the programme can begin.

The initiative has, however, drawn criticism from some health experts warning that it could worsen inequity and could risk corruption and commercialisation.

US to authorise J&J COVID-19 vaccine

The US is expected to approve Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will decide on the authorisation on Saturday, and if approved, will make it the third vaccine available in the US.

FDA external expert panel recommended the approval of the single-shot vaccine on Friday.

Single dose of Pfizer vaccine protect against asymptomatic infection

A new research says a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine can protect against asymptomatic infections, which could help reduce transmission of the virus.

Researchers at Cambridge University who carried out the study describe it as “real-world evidence for a high level of protection against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection” from a single dose of the vaccine.

The researchers used PCR tests to screen for COVID-19 in vaccinated and non-vaccinated Cambridge University Hospitals healthcare workers.

TheCable