… Asks Countries Anticipating Excess Vaccine Supplies to Pass Doses to Developing Countries

…Calls for Transparency, Greater Public Information on Vaccine Procurement, Contracts, Options, Agreements, Financing

…Approves Over $150bn to Fight Health, Economic, Social Impacts of COVID-19 Since April 2020

…Assists Over 100 Countries on Emergency Health Needs, Strengthen Pandemic Preparedness, Protecting the Poor, Jobs

The World Bank says that it is providing over $4 billion for the purchase and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines for 51 developing countries, half of which are in Africa.

This huge support however excludes Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, which is reeling from acute vaccine supplies to meet its vision of vaccinating 70 per cent of its over 200 million population.

Although the country is expecting additional 3.92 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Assess Facility (COVAX) in August, this is still grossly inadequate to meet its huge requirements and flies in the face of the bold effort to achieve its vaccination target. With 167,692 COVID-19 cases, Nigeria has witnessed 2,121 deaths and 164,273 recoveries as at July 2, 2021.

More than half of the World Bank’s financing comes from the International Development Association (IDA), the Bank’s fund for the world’s poorest countries, and is on grant or highly concessional terms. This financing is part of the Bank’s commitment to help low- and middle-income countries acquire and distribute vaccines and strengthen their health systems.

The World Bank reiterates its call to governments, pharmaceutical companies, and organizations involved in vaccine procurement and delivery to help increase transparency and build greater public information regarding vaccine contracts, options and agreements; vaccine financing and delivery agreements; and doses delivered and future delivery plans.

It asks those countries anticipating excess vaccine supplies in the coming months to release their surplus doses and options as soon as possible, in a transparent manner, to developing countries with adequate distribution plans in place.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Bank Group has approved more than $150 billion to fight the health, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic.

The Bank has also since April 2020, scaled up its financing by over 50 percent, helping more than 100 countries meet emergency health needs, strengthen pandemic preparedness, while also supporting countries as they protect the poor and jobs, and jump starting a climate-friendly recovery.

“The World Bank is helping developing countries in every region of the world with vaccine purchase and rollout,” said Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Managing Director of Operations. “Significant challenges still remain regarding vaccine deployment and hesitancy. We are taking action on all fronts to tackle these challenges, working in solidarity with international and regional partners to expedite doses to as many people as possible and to enhance disease surveillance, preparedness, and response.”

The $4 billion is supporting COVID-19 vaccination efforts in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin, Cape Verde, Cambodia, Comoros Island, the Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eswatini, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, the Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, São Tomé e Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Togo, Tunisia, Ukraine, Yemen, and Zambia.

The Bank’s vaccine finance package is designed to be flexible. It can be used by countries to acquire doses through COVAX, the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) or other sources. It also finances vaccine deployment and health system strengthening, such as vaccine cold-chains, training health workers, data and information systems, and communications and outreach campaigns to key stakeholders which are crucial to ensure vaccination acceptance. The Bank has aligned its eligibility criteria for COVID-19 vaccines with the revised eligibility criteria of COVAX and other multilateral partners.

The World Bank is partnering with the African Union and the World Bank-supported Africa Center for Disease Control to support AVATT initiative with resources to allow countries to purchase and deploy vaccines for up to 400 million people across Africa. The Bank is also convening a task force with the IMF, WHO, WTO, and other partners to track, coordinate, and advance delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries.

The Bank continues to work with governments and partners – UNICEF, the Global Fund, WHO, and GAVI, to assess the readiness of over 140 developing countries to deploy vaccines. Countries have made significant progress since the publication of the effort’s first report.

Latest findings show that 95 percent of countries have developed national vaccination plans, 79 percent have safety measures in place, and 82 percent have prioritizations of populations to receive the vaccine. However, only 59 percent have developed plans to train the large number of vaccinators needed and less than half have a plan in place to generate public confidence, trust, and demand for COVID-19 vaccines.

Nigerian government reveals that it is expecting to receive additional 3.92 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Assess Facility (COVAX).

Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, who disclosed this during a media briefing in Abuja penultimate week,
said the doses of vaccines are expected in the country latest by August, 2021.

“We now have information that Nigeria will get 3.92m doses of Oxford/Astrazeneca by the end of July or early August,” he said.

Nigeria had commenced COVID-19 vaccination on March 5, 2021, having received approximately four million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines from COVAX, a UN-backed effort that promises access to vaccines for up to 20 per cent of participating countries’ population

On March 21, Nigeria also received another 300,000 doses of the same vaccine from telecom giant, MTN while the government of India also delivered 100,000 doses of Covishield vaccines to Nigeria on April 6, bringing the total number of vaccines in stock to about 4.4million.

As a result of limited doses of vaccine, the Nigerian government announced a pause in the vaccine rollout once half of the about 4.4million doses in stock were exhausted to forestall out-of-stock situation when those already vaccinated start coming back for their second doses.

The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is given in double doses. A person is required to come back for a second shot, some weeks after taking the first jab.

Shuaib said 1,978,808 of the targeted eligible Nigerians have so far received their first dose of the Oxford-Astrazeneca COVID-19 vaccine. More than 680,345 people have also proceeded to receive the second dose of their vaccines since June 15.

He said; “I will once again remind those listening that we are advising all Nigerians who have received their first dose to check their vaccination cards for the date of their first dose and ensure that they receive the second dose between 6-12 weeks after their 1st dose to gain full protection against COVID-19.

“Please note that in some cases the location of your second dose may be different from your first dose, so please be sure to confirm this.”

Mr Shuaib said the administering of the first dose of vaccines officially resumes Tuesday, June 15 after it was initially closed on May 24,2021 due to shortage of vaccines.

He added; “Recall that we officially closed the vaccination for the first dose on 24th May 2021. Since then, we have been inundated with requests by Nigerians to be vaccinated.

“In response, we have decided to reopen vaccination for the first dose from today. This means anyone 18 years and above who has not been vaccinated should visit the nearest vaccination site for the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“For such persons, their second dose will be due in 12 weeks and by then we would have received the next consignment of vaccines.”

Mr Shuaib also said research from Public Health England (PHE) shows that the Indian (Delta) variant B.1.617.2 is 92 per cent susceptible to Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccines.

He said it is comforting to know that the vaccine used in Nigeria can protect against this variant that is causing high morbidity and mortality in India.

“However, it underscores the need for us to ramp up our vaccination to more Nigerians,” he said.