Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has submitted an expression of interest to benefit from COVID-19 vaccines when they become available, a senior government official has said.
The chief coordinator, National Response to COVID-19, Agnes Mahomva, told Business Times that Zimbabwe is part of the COVAX group and is, therefore, eligible to receive financial assistance to get vaccines amid the potential second wave of the novel coronavirus. She said:
The COVAX group has already identified countries that will need financial support to get vaccines. We happen to be one of those countries.
There are those who are rich and those in low-income groups like us and we are part of the group and we are waiting.
We already submitted our expression of interest to make sure we won’t be left out when vaccines become available.
The COVAX Facility is a global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), COVAX is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.
Meanwhile, one of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical firms, Pfizer, in particular, recently announced that it has submitted its application to the Food and Drug Administration to authorise their COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.
Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, said their vaccine was 95% effective while Moderna made almost similar claims, saying its vaccine was 94.5% effective.
