30 Apr 2021
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will return 1.3 million unused doses of the Chinese coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca to the U.N., it announced this week, after the country’s government failed to finalize a distribution plan for the vaccines.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) donated over 1.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to DRC in early March through COVAX, a World Health Organization (W.H.O.) initiative to provide free Chinese coronavirus vaccines to poorer nations.
“A plan for the deployment of the COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] vaccines across the country is being finalized,” UNICEF reported hours after its COVAX shipment arrived in DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, on March 5.
DR Congo Returns AstraZeneca Vaccines Citing Lack of Distribution Plan breitbart.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from breitbart.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
DRC to return AstraZeneca vaccines to Unicef
Thursday April 29 2021
Summary
The decision was made to ensure usage of the vaccines before the expiry date on June 24.
The DRC has not issued a vaccination plan to support a mass vaccination campaign and has an insufficient number of vaccination sites.
Advertisement
The Democratic Republic of Congo says it will return to the United Nations Children s Fund (Unicef) a total of 1.3 million doses of the 1.7 million it received, for redistribution to other African countries.
Susie Villeneuve, Unicef regional advisor for Health Systems Strengthening in West and Central Africa, said the decision was made to ensure usage of the vaccines before the expiry date on June 24.
Ghana is expected to receive another consignment of over 200,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in May this year.
The UNICEF’s Regional Advisor for Health Systems Strengthening for Western and Central Africa Regional Office, Ms Susie Villeneuve, disclosed this, explaining that the vaccine would be shipped from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Ghana, Togo and the Comoros.
She said the development was because the DRC did not have the needed systems and structures to use the AstraZeneca doses it received under the global access (COVAX) facility.
At a panel discussion at this year’s African Vaccination Week (AVW) launch in Accra on Monday, April 26, 2021, Ms Villeneuve explained that the decision to ship the vaccines from DRC