Johannesburg : Moderna said on Tuesday it will supply the African Union (AU) with up to 110 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine, with the first 15 million expected to be delivered by the end of the year.
The doses were “offered at Moderna’s lowest tiered price, in line with its global access commitments,” the US company said in a statement.
The African Union is buying coronavirus vaccines from various manufacturers to bolster member states’ vaccination drives, said dpa international.
AU coronavirus envoy Strive Masiyiwa welcomed Moderna’s announcement.
Masiyiwa said that, so far, the AU had distributed 17 million doses of coronavirus vaccines and 35.2 million more will be delivered in the next three weeks.
Only about 5 percent of Africa’s population of 1.3 billion people has been fully vaccinated. To reach 60 per cent, it is estimated that about 1.6 billion doses will be needed.
According to the Africa CDC, just under 8.6 million Covid-19 infections have been documented in Africa to date, of which just under 217,000 were fatal.
According to experts, however, the real number of cases and deaths could be far higher due to low rates of testing.
