The Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), set up by the African Union (AU) to acquire additional vaccine doses for the continent said it has received an offer of 300 million Sputnik V vaccines from the Russian Federation.
This includes a financing package for any member states wishing to secure the vaccine.
This was disclosed in a statement. However, AVATT has revealed that the 270 million doses previously secured from AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnsons were all taken up by the first allocation phase deadline through the African Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP).
“With these additional 300 million Sputnik V vaccines, AMSP accelerates online COVID-19 vaccines pre-orders for the 55 African Union member states,” it stated.
“We are grateful to receive the Sputnik V vaccines from the Russian Federation and tremendously proud to be able to offer them on the AMSP for our AU Member States,” the Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Dr. John Nkengasong said.
“Bilateral and private sector partnerships such as these are critical in our efforts to bring the COVID-19 pandemic to an end,” he added.
According to the statement, while details, including clinical and technical information, are now accessible on the AMSP, Sputnik V vaccines would be available for a period of 12 months commencing in May 2021. “From today, the 55 African Union member states are all invited to visit www.amsp.africa and use their national access code – issued to all African Union member states’ Ministers of Finance and Health – to start the pre-order process.
“African Union member states that wish to secure funding should approach the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) through their central banks, as has been the case with the other vaccines that have been on offer,” it added.
