Vaccination campaigns against Kovid-19 continue around the world: Ghana on Wednesday received the first worldwide delivery of Kovacs device-funded vaccines specifically intended for disadvantaged countries, but AstraZeneca gave to EU in EU New production difficulties have been recognized in fulfilling the promises.

“Finally! The first dose of the Kovid-19 vaccine delivered by the Kovid device arrived in Ghana this morning,” wrote World Health Organization (WHO) director general, Tedros Adnom Ghebreces, on Twitter. “This is a day we have to celebrate, but this is just a first step.”

The aircraft, carrying 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine from the manufacturer Serum Institute of India, landed at the airport in Ghana’s capital Accra on Wednesday morning. According to a statement by WHO and UNICEF, “These doses are part of the first wave of vaccines against Kovid for many low and middle income countries.”

Ghana, which has recorded 80,759 coronavirus viruses, including 582 mortality, is expected to receive 2.4 million doses.

The Kovacs system aims to provide 20% of the Kovid vaccines to the population of about 200 participating countries and regions this year, but above all includes a funding mechanism that allows low or medium-level economic development to 92 countries. Precious Dose. It was established to prevent rich countries from monopolizing all vaccines.

However, Tedros Adnom Ghebreyus on Monday accused some wealthy countries of “reducing” the Coxax device and “contacting manufacturers to ensure access to additional vaccine doses”.

Vaccine distribution in Ghana comes after South Africa, Zimbabwe, Seychelles, Mauritius, Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Algeria, Morocco and Egypt launched the vaccination campaign in Senegal on Tuesday.

To help speed up the vaccination of 1.3 billion Africans, the African Union has said that it has received 270 million doses of the Kovid vaccine to distribute this year.

– AstraZeneca difficulties in the European Union –

According to calculations done by AFP, at least 217 million doses of Kovid vaccines have been administered worldwide. But more than nine out of ten doses were injected into “high” or “upper middle” income countries as defined by the World Bank.

As vaccination slowly spreads to poorer countries, India on Wednesday announced plans to expand its comprehensive Kovid-19 vaccination program to more than 60 people in private hospitals on March 60.

Ukraine, one of Europe’s poorest countries, made its debut on Wednesday after several delays, but the dose is still low.

Meanwhile, Hungary said it began using the vaccine from the Chinese laboratory Sinopharm on Wednesday, becoming the first country in the European Union to do so.

Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, for its part, has said that it should use the sites of its international network outside the European Union to keep its promise for the European Union in the second half of the year. Despite everything, the European Commission has shown confidence in deliveries in the coming months.

AstraZeneca is “working to increase productivity in its supply chain in the European Union” and “will use global capacity to ensure delivery of 180 million doses to the European Union in the second half of the year”, group spokesperson accordingly.

The announcement comes after a dispute over the first quarter 2021 delivery of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine to the European Union, which has led to tension between Brussels and the pharmaceutical group.

– “Very worrying” situation in France –

There will be an extraordinary European summit by videoconferencing dedicated specifically to the health crisis.

On the eve of this meeting, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sought to show optimism in the conflict with AstraZeneca. “Vaccine manufacturers are our partners in this epidemic,” she said.

According to a report set up by AFP on Wednesday, worldwide, governments are banking on the context of an epidemic that has killed nearly 2.5 million people since late December.

In France, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday, the situation in the fight against Kovid-19 is “deteriorating” and “very worrying in ten out of ten departments”.

This decline “requires rapid and robust measures,” he said.

The city of Dunkirk (North), in the grip of the outbreak of the epidemic, is waiting to be decided on a parade to be chosen by the government.

Health Minister Olivier Veran should stop there in the afternoon with local elected officials, as part of the Côte d’Azur (south-east), to come to terms of imprisonment on both weekends.

burx-slb / bds