wildly uneven and unfair that's how the
un describes the distribution of coveted
vaccines around the world
as rich nations scramble to buy up as
much of the supply
many places are left out entirely but
today there's been a victory of sorts
ghana has become the first country to
receive vaccines through the kovacs
vaccine sharing initiative
they're produced by the serum institute
of india a total of six hundred thousand
doses of the vaccine developed by
astrazeneca and oxford university
has arrived in the ghana capital accra
but what about the kovacs plan
and how can it help ensure that vaccines
are shared
fairly amongst all nations the world
health organization program is aiming to
deliver
2 billion doses to people in 190
countries by the end of the year
in particular it wants to ensure that 92
poorer countries
will receive access to vaccines at the
same time that 98
wealthier countries the scheme has so
far raised around 6 billion
but says it needs at least another 2
billion to meet its target for 2021.
well thomas noddy is in accra for us
the supply arrived this morning around
7 00 a.m local time and then
the minister of health and other
dignitaries were at the critical
international
airport to receive their toxins
and so before these vaccines arrived
the country had decided to and
authorities had decided to educate
people about the vaccines the fact that
it was safe for them to use
and that it had gone through all the
necessary protocols so the rollout is
expected
in next month and it will be done
between march and october
and they are targeting about 20 million
ghanaians
and and what's the response been there
and and how are they deciding exactly
who receives it
well the response has been good
because ghana had seen a spike in cases
um in covet 19 cases there was elections
in december and also because of the
christmas festivities
we saw a rise in cases people abandoned
some of the protocols
and so hospitals were overwhelmed with
limited
icu facilities the arrival of this
particular
vaccine has come as a great relief to
health workers and a lot of ghanians and
now
they want to prioritize only a health
line
and by frontline health workers and then
people with underlying health conditions
as well as adult 60 years and above but
we'll also be
vaccinating other frontline workers in
the security agencies
we have members of parliament the
executive and also the judiciary
and do you know why ghana was chosen for
this delivery first
ghana has over the years been engaging
in vaccination programs and because of
that they've been able to build
an effective vaccine infrastructure
to be able to do this and it's one of
the reasons why
unicef considered ghana as the first
country
to receive these particular vaccines
i'm joined now by edwin icuria executive
director for africa for the one campaign
which aims to end extreme poverty and
preventable disease
by 2030. thanks so much for joining us
um
your reaction to this rollout today
i mean it's it's been long long awaited
so it's really welcome development very
welcome news
you can see the excitement already in
ghana in terms of i've been the first to
receive this uh these doses
uh so yes it's really welcome
development and we've been really
excited about it
can you just clarify how this whole
system is working
is this about um donations from
any nation that is able to going into a
central pot
and then that sort of buys up supplies
from commercial vaccine makers
no the kovacs face the cobalt facility
it's
you know it's a multilateral framework
that is really special by
the wh and garvey and the idea here is
to pull
funding to pull fund and be able to
access
uh vaccines from the manufacturers
themselves as soon as they get
they become available so that um all the
countries around the world whether you
have the
financing or you don't will be able to
have access at least to critical
vaccines
that would uh take care of some key
populations like the health workers
like the age people and all of that the
kobach facility is aiming to reach
about 25 percent of population in
low-income countries
but this pool funding is as as it's
designed
requires the um the the support of the
richer nations and that's why
it has really been with the visit we're
promoting that because
if they don't get that support that
initial um
access to these vaccines in terms of the
timing which is also very important
wouldn't happen
and so it's not just about retardations
donating their doses
it's also about pool funding to be able
to access
directly from manufacturers as soon as
it is available yes
so how how is it decided for example in
countries which are manufacturing
vaccine like india in this case others
of course right around the world
whether they give that vaccine supply
to their own domestic populations
through domestic governments or whether
they supply it
and redistribute it so it's
it's not necessarily about the logistics
of how it gets to the countries that are
need that need it
it's a bit complex there are some
arrangements that already happen within
the kovac system
that requires how prepared are the
countries so when vaccines become
available say for instance from india
the astrozonica vaccine when it becomes
available which countries already are
prepared
with a plan to be able to distribute
immediately those are the kind of
constructions that come into it
now for for india for instance it has
its own plan as a country
either as part of kovacs or on its own
the african union
have its own plan as a continent whether
as part of kovacs as well as independent
procurement mechanisms so it depends on
what is available who is able to make
this available
as that when it is due and who has the
plan to be able to distribute this as
soon as it arrives
those are the kind of considerations
that take place but it's about
commitment first so for instance
at the african union they have to have
um procure they basically pay for
for commitments so that when the
vaccines are produced just like rich
countries have done already
with manufacturers they pay in advance
and once they get that commitment they
are able to then
ship to them as soon as the vaccines
become available so the coverage is
doing the same thing
making commitments paying in advance for
the vaccines to be available as soon as
it's available
it is shipped based on designs that
they've already made to get to those who
are ready
and and you know and going to take place
just very briefly which countries need
to step up more and in what way is this
about
basically getting more funding
the act accelerator or the kovacs uh
process itself needs more funding
it requires the main the main call right
now is that
the vaccines need to get to people on
time and if the
kovacs facility doesn't get the funding
it requires this is not going to happen
and this is the reason why the stepping
up of the g7 nations has been quite
um very helpful in that in that sense so
that it has if they don't get the
funding
it will take a longer time for the
vaccines to get to those who need it and
that is the biggest challenge that we
are facing right now
a very important message edwin icuria
from the
one campaign many thanks indeed for
joining us
thank you for having me