More African countries receive first COVID-19 vaccines

Addis Ababa, March 3, 2021 (FBC) -More African countries have received their first batches of the coronavirus vaccines under the global COVAX scheme.

Kenya received over a million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Wednesday, becoming the third East African country to benefit from the COVAX scheme.

The doses are enough to vaccinate 500,000 people in the first phase. Frontline health workers, teachers, police officers and the elderly will be first in line.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Health Minister Eteni Longondo was at the airport on Tuesday night to receive 1.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The DR Congo is expecting a total 6.9 million doses to be delivered from now up till the end of May 2021.

Angola received 624,000 doses of the vaccine, while The Gambia received 36,000 doses on Wednesday.

The COVAX scheme is a World Health Organization (WHO)-driven strategy for a global and equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.

It hopes to deliver more than two billion doses to people in 190 countries in less than a year, according to BBC.