Vaccines Made in South Africa to Stay in Africa, Says Envoy
FILE - In this March 29, 2021 file photo, vials of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine move along a conveyor belt at ASPEN Pharmaceuticals in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Vaccine doses produced at the plant in South Africa will no longer be exported to Europe after the intervention of South Africa's government, the African Union's COVID-19 vaccine envoy said Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/File)
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Vaccine doses produced by a plant in South Africa will no longer be exported to Europe following the intervention of South Africa’s government, the African Union’s COVID-19 vaccine envoy said Thursday.
South African drug manufacturer Aspen Pharmacare, which has a contract with Johnson & Johnson to assemble the ingredients of its COVID-19 vaccine, will produce for the African continent and millions of doses that had been shipped to European countries but remain in warehouses will be returned, Strive Masiyiwa told reporters.
J&J doses produced in South Africa “will stay in Africa and will be distributed in Africa,” he said at an online press briefing for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The arrangement for some doses finished in South Africa to be exported to Europe “has been suspended,” he said, adding that the issue was “corrected in a positive way.” Aspen’s agreement with Johnson & Johnson has changed from a contract deal to “a licensed arrangement” similar to the production in India of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The Aspen product will be “African branded,” he said.
Johnson & Johnson was heavily criticized for shipping doses to countries in Europe, which have already immunized large numbers of their people and have even donated vaccines to more needy countries.
In contrast, Africa has fully vaccinated less than 3% of its 1.3 billion people. Vaccine production within the continent is seen as key to meeting the stated target of vaccinating 60% of Africa’s population. Half of those doses are expected to be procured under a vaccine acquisition group backed by the African Union that has already ordered 400 million J&J doses.
Under that deal, in which doses will be distributed across the continent over 12 months, 6.4 million doses were shipped in August and the number could rise to 20 million in September, according to Masiyiwa, coordinator of the African Union group known as the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust.
“In Africa, the issue is vaccine supply,” he said, downplaying concerns about vaccine hesitancy that have been reported in some countries. “Even if there are loud noises about vaccine hesitancy — and we will not dismiss it — but let’s get to 60%, OK, and then we worry about the 40%,” he said. “But if 60% of our population right now are happy to take the vaccine, let’s give it to them.”
Masiyiwa accused the international community of letting Africa down with COVAX, a United Nations and donor-backed program envisaged to help middle- and low-income countries access vaccines. COVAX has fallen short of its goals and some countries are “still significantly hoarding supplies” of vaccine doses, charged Masiyiwa.
“The international community has not met its obligations under (the) understanding of COVAX,” he said. “COVAX was supposed to deliver 320 million doses by August. In a letter to us that we received only yesterday, that number is 30 million doses.”
John Nkengasong, head of the Africa CDC, said the continent must “vaccinate quickly” to defeat the pandemic as the delta and other variants spread in many countries and stretch the capacity of health facilities.
Africa’s 54 countries have reported more than 7.8 million cases, including more than 197,000 deaths.
Thank you for reaching out to us. We are happy to receive your opinion and request. If you need advert or sponsored post, We’re excited you’re considering advertising or sponsoring a post on our blog. Your support is what keeps us going. With the current trend, it’s very obvious content marketing is the way to go. Banner advertising and trying to get customers through Google Adwords may get you customers but it has been proven beyond doubt that Content Marketing has more lasting benefits.
We offer majorly two types of advertising:
1. Sponsored Posts: If you are really interested in publishing a sponsored post or a press release, video content, advertorial or any other kind of sponsored post, then you are at the right place.
WHAT KIND OF SPONSORED POSTS DO WE ACCEPT?
Generally, a sponsored post can be any of the following:
Press release
Advertorial
Video content
Article
Interview
This kind of post is usually written to promote you or your business. However, we do prefer posts that naturally flow with the site’s general content. This means we can also promote artists, songs, cosmetic products and things that you love of all products or services.
DURATION & BONUSES
Every sponsored article will remain live on the site as long as this website exists. The duration is indefinite! Again, we will share your post on our social media channels and our email subscribers too will get to read your article. You’re exposing your article to our: Twitter followers, Facebook fans and other social networks.
We will also try as much as possible to optimize your post for search engines as well.
Submission of Materials : Sponsored post should be well written in English language and all materials must be delivered via electronic medium. All sponsored posts must be delivered via electronic version, either on disk or e-mail on Microsoft Word unless otherwise noted.
PRICING
The price largely depends on if you’re writing the content or we’re to do that. But if your are writing the content, it is $60 per article.
2. Banner Advertising: We also offer banner advertising in various sizes and of course, our prices are flexible. you may choose to for the weekly rate or simply buy your desired number of impressions.
Technical Details And Pricing
Banner Size 300 X 250 pixels : Appears on the home page and below all pages on the site.
Banner Size 728 X 90 pixels: Appears on the top right Corner of the homepage and all pages on the site.
Large rectangle Banner Size (336x280) : Appears on the home page and below all pages on the site.
Small square (200x200) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Half page (300x600) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Portrait (300x1050) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Billboard (970x250) : Appears on the home page.
Submission of Materials : Banner ads can be in jpeg, jpg and gif format. All materials must be deliverd via electronic medium. All ads must be delivered via electronic version, either on disk or e-mail in the ordered pixel dimensions unless otherwise noted.
For advertising offers, send an email with your name,company, website, country and advert or sponsored post you want to appear on our website to advert @ alexa. ng
Normally, we should respond within 48 hours.