The United States will send nearly 1.2 million Pfizer anti-Covid vaccines to Côte d’Ivoire, hit by a peak in contamination with the rest of Africa, a White House official announced on Wednesday (August 18th) . “Thanks to the American commitment to play a leading role in ending the pandemic in the world, the United States is sending 1,183,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine to Côte d’Ivoire this week“, This official told AFP.
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The shipment is managed by the Covax international system of free distribution of vaccines to the poorest countries, supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Gavi alliance, one of its partners. Vaccines “are dispatched today and will arrive at their destination this weekend“, Specified the American official.
Côte d’Ivoire has recorded fewer than 400 deaths from the coronavirus but the West African country is grappling with a third wave of infection that is spreading across the continent. Less than 2% of the African population is fully vaccinated while the authorities have to destroy doses due to the lack of infrastructure to administer them or a reluctance to vaccinate.
$ 2 million to help the Ivorian government
According to the White House, the American agency for international aid USAID has provided a budget of $ 2 million which should notably help the Ivorian government to “plan and monitor vaccine distribution, strengthen the supply chain, increase vaccine demand through health education and train health personnel in immunization».
US President Joe Biden wants to be at the forefront of rich countries’ efforts to distribute vaccines to poor countries. The «understands that the end of the pandemic means its eradication all over the world“, Underlined the person in charge. The delivery to Côte d’Ivoire is part of a batch of 500 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine purchased this summer for distribution to the African Union and 92 poor countries, such as Vietnam and Honduras. The United States has also donated $ 2 billion to the Covax system.
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At the same time, the US government announced on Wednesday a national recall campaign from September 20 to counter the reduction in the protection of anti-Covid vaccines against the Delta variant. And this despite calls from the WHO to postpone this third dose in an attempt to remedy the gaping vaccine inequalities between rich and poor countries. “We can do bothWhite House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Tuesday, saying the United States had enough stocks to distribute the vaccines to its people and to other countries around the world.
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