Panic in Africa due to temporary ban on India's export of corona vaccine. African Union said that affecting vaccine imports would have disastrous outcomes. India has imposed a temporary ban on vaccine exports to speed up the vaccination campaign in the country.
Stopping exports of India's AstraZeneca corona virus vaccine has increased worry in African countries. Many health experts, comprising the United Nations, have warned that this decision by India may affect the campaigns for vaccination in Africa.
India's AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine has raised concerns in African countries. Many health experts, including the United Nations, have alerted that this decision by India may affect the campaigns for vaccination in Africa. On Thursday, the head of the disease control body of the African continent alerted that it could have disastrous outcomes.
In India Serum Institute of India (SII) produces the Corona vaccine of AstraZeneca. India has already exported several crore doses of Corona vaccine to more than 50 countries around the world. Now the government has suspended export of the vaccine to foreign countries on a temporary basis in order to increase the demand in the country and intensify the corona vaccination campaign. There is an outcry in Africa about this.
John Nekengsong, director of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, that it would definitely affect our ability to continue vaccinating people. The African Union had scheduled to vaccinate 30 to 35 percent of the continent's population by the end of the year. However, now that the vaccine's arrival has come down, he said that our aim may be missed by this detainee.
The African country Ghana was to receive 2.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through COVAX by the end of May. However, so far it has been able to get only 6 lakh doses. Kwame Amposa-Achiano, head of Ghana's vaccine campaign, said he had been told that more vaccine doses would now be available by June. A health official tangled in the Corona vaccination campaign in Africa said that trusting the manufacturer is a matter of great concern.
The African Union's target of aiming 30 to 35 percent of the population by the end of 2021 is dependent on the COVAX vaccine sharing facility. A total of 64 countries along with many poor countries settled on this continent will be given vaccines from Serum Institute of India. COVAX aims to provide enough shots to African countries to have at least 20 percent of their population vaccinated.
Till now more than 42 lakh 50 thousand infection cases have been notified in African countries. Among them 112,000 people have also died, but health experts believe the real number may be many times more. Because, in most African countries, health services are in bad shape. A large number of cases have not even been registered by the government.
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