The Advisory Committee for Immunization in Senegal has given the green light for various licensed vaccines. In the immediate term, doses of AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccine will be received at the end of February with priority targeting for beneficiaries.
Wherever they come from, the key is to have doses of vaccine. Senegal has put an option on five of the five Covid-19 vaccines available worldwide.
The revelation was made by immunologist Professor Tandakha Ndiaye Dieye, a member of Senegal’s Advisory Committee on Immunization expert group, who announced that “the race for the vaccine” has already begun.
These are the vaccines Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and Sinopharm licensed by the scientists. The big equation remains the availability of doses.
Senegal, pressed by the situation, will initially, between late February and early March, receive 1.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine through the World Health Organization’s Covax initiative and another 200,000 doses from the Chinese laboratory Sinopharm already in the pipeline.
3.5 million people, or 20 percent of its population, are targeted as the primary beneficiaries. An awareness campaign will accompany the operations.
over 2 billion CFA francs ($3.72 million) are already paid to the Chinese laboratory.