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Published Wednesday, January 27, 2021
COVAX could deliver the vaccine
against covid-19 in February
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
COVAX, the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to covid-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level, announced the signing of an advance purchase agreement with Pfizer for up to 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate.
According to the World Health Organization, WHO, COVAX confirmed that it will exercise an option to receive its first 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University-developed vaccine manufactured by SII.
Of these first 100 million doses, the majority are earmarked for delivery in the first quarter of the year, pending WHO Emergency Use Listing. According to the latest WHO update, a decision on this vaccine candidate is anticipated by the middle of February.
COVAX also anticipates that, via an existing agreement with AstraZeneca, at least 50 million further doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine will be available for delivery to COVAX participants in Q1 2021, pending emergency use listing by WHO of the COVAX-specific manufacturing network for these doses. A decision on this candidate is also anticipated by WHO in February.
“Today marks another milestone for COVAX: pending regulatory approval for the AstraZeneca/Oxford candidate and pending the successful conclusion of the supply agreement for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, we anticipate being able to begin deliveries of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines by the end of February," said Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi Alliance, which leads COVAX procurement and delivery.
Preparations, led by WHO, UNICEF and Gavi, are already well underway for COVAX to deliver vaccines to economies eligible for support via the COVAX AMC, with Gavi making $150 million available from its core funding as initial, catalytic support for preparedness and delivery.
The COVAX Facility intends to provide all 190 participating economies with an indicative allocation of doses by the end of this month. This estimated amount will provide interim guidance to participants – offering a minimum planning scenario to enable preparations for the final allocation of the number of doses each participant will receive in the first rounds of vaccine distribution.
In Costa Rica, the government joined last year, the COVAX-Facility program coordinated by WHO for two million doses. In the case of the COVAX agreement, the first advanced payment of $6,316,560, or 30% of the cost, was scheduled to be made in October 2020, the government said in its statement. The payment is based on the $10.55 price tag set by COVAX. The price includes factory costs, access, financing, risk mitigation and operating costs.
While the health authorities wait for the arrival of the vaccines against covid-19 provided by COVAX, the Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday the most up-to-date statistics on the evolution of the virus in the country.
• 600 new covid-19 cases are reported, bringing the total to 38.970 current active cases.
• 23,744 foreign-born people have been infected, totaling 191,345 cases since March, approximately 12.4% of the total cases. Of these, authorities confirmed the death of 32 foreign-born patients. But since October, there is no updated information about foreign-born deaths due to covid-19.
• 488 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where 194 patients are in ICU’s in delicate health conditions. Their ages range from 1 to 92-years-old. And 294 patients are in recovery rooms. Many of the remaining infected patients are quarantined in their homes.
• 149,808 patients have fully recovered, a 78.2% recovery rate of the total cases since March.
• 571,988 covid-19 tests have been conducted in Costa Rica since March, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering of Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.
• 2,567 deaths are listed as covid-19 related, approximately 1.3% death rate. Of these 970 are women and 1,597 men. The ages range from a 2-year-old to a 101-year-old.
Readers can see the current number of infected people in each district at the National Distance Education University on its Covid-19 Map.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the pandemic has killed more than 2.1 million people worldwide.
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What is your idea for the government on how to vaccinate the entire population of 5 million people with the treatment against covid-19? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com
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