Botswana’s chances of securing a Coronavirus vaccine remain as good as ever with no particular plans and timelines in place.
There still remains no vaccine in sight for the country while COVID-19 cases continue to surge leading into the Christmas break, an anticipated super spreader festive season.
With countries like the UK already anticipating up to 800,000 doses of the newly licensed Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as early as this week Africa, it seems, will continue to play the waiting game until the rest of the world has satisfactorily rolled out the treatment.
Speaking to Sunday Standard last past, week National COVID-19 Task Force Deputy Coordinator Professor Mosepele Mosepele said there had not been any notable progress in their attempt to acquire a vaccine.
He said President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s reference to a vaccine in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) earlier last month (November 9, 2020) remains the only official word on Botswana’s chances of acquiring a vaccine.
Masisi alluded to Botswana being party to a coalition aimed at negotiating affordable and speedy access for vaccine to ensure that people in all corners of the world will get access to COVID-19 vaccines regardless of their economic standing.
The coalition, COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX Facility), was launched in April 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO) alongside the European Commission and France to accelerate the development and manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.
It brings together governments, global health organisations, manufacturers, scientists, private sector, civil society and philanthropy, with the aim of providing innovative and equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.
COVAX would act as a platform to support the research, development and manufacturing of a wide range of COVID-19 vaccine candidates, and negotiate their pricing. All participating countries, regardless of income levels, would have equal access to vaccines.
The initial aim was to have 2 billion doses available by the end of 2021, which should be enough to protect high risk and vulnerable people, as well as frontline healthcare workers.
Now with the discovery of vaccines recently, earlier than initially anticipated, it remains unclear if COVAX time lines in relation to getting everybody covered remain the same.
COVAX has been seen as a lifeline and the only viable way for citizens of lower-income countries who would otherwise be unable to afford the COVID-19 vaccines, as well as those of a number of higher-income self-financing countries that have no deals with manufacturers.
The collaboration, made up of at least two thirds of the world, serves as an invaluable insurance policy to protect citizens of low income countries by increasing their chances of securing vaccine doses.
As at the September 2020, a total of one hundred and fifty six (156) countries were reported to have joined the COVAX Facility including 64 high income countries and 92 lower income economies, representing more than 64 percent of the world’s population. President Masisi announced in his SONA that Botswana was among the countries that have joined the COVAX Facility saying it presented an opportunity for the country to access the COVID-19 vaccine once availed.
The recent surge in numbers of positive cases exposed Botswana’s inadequacies with the government struggling to accommodate all positive cases, rather breaking their own regulations by encouraging asymptomatic positive cases to self-quarantine.
The President himself admitted the lack of readiness in his SONA saying COVID-19 had exposed the inadequacies in Botswana’s health system to effectively deal with public health threats and emergencies.
“In order to deal with this challenge, the National Health Laboratory services capacity was improved to process five thousand (5000) tests per day against the previous five hundred (500). Improvements to build full capacity of ten thousands (10 000) tests per day are ongoing. Construction of the testing laboratories at Mamuno, Kasane and Maun are ongoing and planned for completion by the end of November 2020,” President Masisi said early last month.
The COVID-19 Task Force has already warned of a significant surge in positive cases as the nation heads into the busy festive season. The public have been advised not to travel for the holidays in an effort to curb the spread of the virus which has now claimed at least 34 lives since the first case was reported in March 2020.