African countries are advised not to roll out the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine if the coronavirus variant, first identified in SA as N501Y.V2, proves in scientific studies to be their dominant strain, Africa CDC director Dr John Nkengasong said on Thursday.
He noted, however, that SA is the only country — of the seven which have reported the variant — where it has been proved to be dominant and the AstraZeneca deployment put on hold.
Botswana, Comoros, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia are the other countries reporting this variant.
“We are watching the situation in SA carefully. We will be conducting our own evaluations across multiple countries to see the extent of the impact of the (N501Y. V2) specific variant,” Nkengasong said at his weekly briefing.
Gambia, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal are reporting the presence of another variant, known as 501Y.V1.
This is a good vaccine without the variant. The variant will only impact if it is overwhelming in that country.
Covid-19 vaccines are seen as critical in arresting the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed nearly 96,732 lives in Africa, of the 3,7 million people who have been infected to date.
Of 270 million doses of vaccines acquired by the Covid-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), 100 million are the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
The Africa CDC chief said: “For now, our strategy is not to throw away 100 million vaccine doses, but rather to target countries not reporting that variant.
“This is a good vaccine without the variant. The variant will only impact if it is overwhelming in that country. We still have an extensive number of countries that can benefit from those vaccines.”
Twenty African member states have expressed interest in ordering vaccines on the AVATT platform, Nkengasong said.
The Africa CDC convened a special session of the Africa Task Force for Covid-19 on Tuesday to discuss the existing data and latest developments about the variant.
“For countries which have reported the circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 N501Y. V2 (or B.1.351), Africa CDC recommends the acceleration of their preparedness to introduce all Covid-19 vaccines that have received emergency use authorisation or approval by regulatory authorities.
“Consideration should be given to the effectiveness of the vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 N501Y.V2 or any other circulating SARS-CoV-2 variant in the country,” said Nkengasong.
By Thursday, more than 150 million people had been vaccinated worldwide, but only a fraction of them are in African countries, including Morocco and Seychelles.
By Thursday, more than 150 million people had been vaccinated worldwide, but only a fraction of them are in African countries, including Morocco and Seychelles.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is among the most affordable and easy to store and Nkengasong said member states “would not be walking away” from it.
“We are looking at testing Covid-19 vaccines in different settings,” said Nkengasong of the upcoming work of the Africa CDC Consortium for Covid-19 Vaccine Clinical Trials.
Meanwhile, new cases among member states dropped on average by 18% over the past four weeks (January 11 to February 7).
Regions reported on average:
- 13% decrease in the Northern region
- 26% decrease in the Southern region
- 14% increase in the Central region
- 22% increase in the Eastern region
- 5% increase in the Western region
Among the most populous countries, SA has the biggest decrease on average over the past month in new deaths at 11%, followed by Kenya at 6% and Egypt at 4%.
New deaths increased on average in Nigeria by 31%, Ethiopia by 14% and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by 5%.
The DRC also declared its 12th outbreak of Ebola on February 7. More than 70 contacts have been registered in the North Kivu province and are being followed up.
Nkengasong said: “In the DRC, we remain very optimistic that we have better tools for response. We now have a licensed treatment and vaccines against Ebola. None of these were there previously.”
The Africa CDC Pathogen Genomics Initiative, a network of scientists and labs set up and collaborating to enhance disease surveillance, is contributing to fighting diseases such as Ebola and Covid-19.
SA, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Senegal are among about a dozen African countries who are part of this network, with the capacity to do genomic surveillance for coronavirus variants.
Nkengasong made it clear that countries reporting a few cases of the variant did not have reason to suspend planned deployment of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
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