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Congo urge to return 1.3 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses

By News Desk
Republic of Congo wants to give back around 1.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses, said top govt officials, so they can be distributed to other needful nations. 
“There is a lot of vaccine hesitancy in the vast country. There is a five-week timeline to get the doses administered elsewhere.”, said Africa Centers for Disease Control Director John Nkengasong.
John Nkengasong also suggested that Congo is currently working with the COVAX project aimed at the wide distribution of doses to the low as well as middle-income nations to hand over its unused supplies of vaccine doses. He shared the hope that these doses could reach other states going through “an extremely critical time.”

Most African countries largely depend on the doses from COVAX, but John Nkengasong said the current outburst in India means further doses for Africa could be affected for weeks or even months thereafter. He shared that unlike other countries in Europe, they cannot have the luxury of excess doses in stock with them. The Serum Institute of India (SII) is one who makes the doses that COVAX supposedly delivers to most of the African nations, but now that India has banned exports of doses as it is struck with a devastating outbreak of infections.

John Nkengasong stated that he was not aware of other countries like India, saying they are unable to use their vaccine doses but can return those much needful doses to other African nations without waiting till the last moments.

 

Tags: Congo Covax COVID-19 India Nkengasong Republic of Congo Serum Institute of India Vaccine

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