DRC to return 1,3 million of 1,7 million AstraZeneca doses
The DRC has not issued a vaccination plan to support a campaign of this scale and has an insufficient number of vaccination sites, which will hinder “access to this vaccine.
CAPE TOWN, April 29 (ANA) – The Democratic Republic of Congo says it will return the bulk of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines in its possession to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for redistribution to other African countries, the EastAfrican Magazine reported on Thursday.
The country will return 1.3 million of the 1.7 million doses it received through the COVAX global vaccine facility in March, as it does not have a vaccination plan to support a campaign of this scale, nor a sufficient number of vaccination sites, according to UNICEF regional advisor Susie Villeneuve.
She said the decision was made to ensure usage of the vaccines before their June 24 expiry date.
“Ghana, Senegal, Togo, Angola, Madagascar and the Comoros are among the possible recipients of the Congolese lot,” Villeneuve suggested during a video conference in Ghana’s capital Accra this week.
The DRC’s vaccination operations against Covid-19 have slowed down since the official launch of the campaign on April 19 by Health Minister Eteni Longondo.
Covid-19 vaccinations are a sensitive issue in the DRC, where conspiracy theories about their effects circulate widely on social media.
As a result, in one week, only 1,700 people had received the first dose, according to the health ministry. The country started its vaccination drive targeting the high-risk population despite persistent public wariness about the potential side effects of the drugs.
The vaccination drive was initially meant to start on March 15 but was delayed “as a precaution” after several countries suspended the use of the AstraZeneca drugs over concerns about blood clotting risks.
The DRC has recorded 29,768 cases of Covid-19 since March last year, with 763 of those people subsequently dying while 26,172 recovered.
– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa