Senegal is in discussions with China for the acquisition of 200,000 doses of vaccine against Covid-19, in addition to those it will receive through the international Covax program, for a campaign that will initially target 20% of its population, according to the authorities. “Initially we are waiting for the vaccines from the Covax initiative”, explains the Minister of Health Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr in a video on social networks, “but we are also in discussions with the Chinese side to acquire Sinopharm vaccines” . “The number of 200,000 doses is advanced, it is in any case the basis of work”, he adds. The idea is “very soon to acquire these doses to start vaccination,” he adds. The minister does not mention a deadline. A national vaccination strategy was to be delivered to President Macky Sall on Wednesday. Covax is a device set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Alliance for Vaccines (Gavi) to distribute anti-Covid vaccines to underprivileged countries. WHO’s goal is to provide enough doses to immunize up to 20% of the population in participating countries by the end of the year. WHO hopes to send the first vaccines in late January or February. The Chinese public laboratory Sinopharm claimed an efficacy rate of 79.43% for the vaccine developed by its subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a figure lower than those announced by its American competitors Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna. Senegal, relatively preserved like many African countries, is facing a second wave of the pandemic which is testing the health system of this young but poor country. He has declared more than 21,000 cases of contamination and 480 deaths.
– .
