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Friday, March 29, 2024

Africa CDC optimist Sinovac approval will help Africa in COVID vaccination –

The Africa Centre for Disease Control has welcomed the World Health Organizations’ decision to approve the Sinovac COVID jab.

John Nkengasong, the Africa CDC Director, said that the approval was timely since Sinovac was a vaccine that could be easily rolled out in a setting with limited resources, like most African countries.

Optimistic and hopeful

“We can only be optimistic that the Sinovac will help us increase our vaccine uptake,” Nkengasong said during his weekly briefing on the COVID situation in the continent.

Nkengasong was reacting to the fact that WHO had authorized the Sinovac for emergency use, which meant that it would now be available for distribution through COVAX. He said that the vaccine would improve Africa’s capacity to inoculate its population, as the continent was lagging in the exercise.

The Sinovac would also diversify Africa’s options to vaccines, which have primarily been limited to one or two. Mostly, Africa has been relying on the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“With the new vaccine arriving, our risks will diminish. We hope that will happen soon,” Nkengasong told journalists.

Vaccine still effective

He also allayed fears that the vaccine would fall short of the necessary efficacy standard.

“Once the new vaccines are approved in terms of safety and efficacy, they are good and safe. They are efficacious and it’s just a matter of each country fixing them into their vaccination plan,” Nkengasong said.

When approving the use of the Sinovac vaccine, the WHO said the vaccine was easy to store and manage, and thus, was perfectly suitable for countries with limited resources.

The WHO said the vaccine prevented symptomatic disease in 51 % of the vaccinated people and prevented severe COVID-19 in 100 % of the studied population.

Following the approval, Sinovac said it had supplied close to 600 million doses of the vaccine in China and other countries by the end of May. Over 430 million doses had already been administered by the date of WHO approval.

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