Response To Covid-19: Cameroon Receives A Second Consignment Of The Johnson & Johnson Vaccine

The Government of Cameroon has received its second 158,400 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine through the AU-African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) in collaboration with the Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP), the African Union’s Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

This consignment was received by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Health, personal representative of the Minister of Public Health at the Nsimalen International on Sunday August 8, 2021, on behalf of the government of Cameroon.

The delivery of these doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is in line with the President of the Republic of South Africa and African Union (AU) COVID-19 Champion, President Cyril Ramaphosa Covid-19 response strategy of a monthly shipments of vaccines acquired by the AU / African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) to the AU Member States.

This is an initiative by the AU Member States to pool their purchasing power, the AVAT. On March 28, 2021, the AU members signed the historic agreement for the purchase of 220 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, with the potential to order an additional 180 million doses.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was selected for this first pooled procurement because as a single-shot vaccine, it is easier and cheaper to administer, the vaccine has a long shelf-life and favourable storage conditions and it is partly manufactured on the African continent, with fill-finish activities taking place in South Africa.

Provided Africa has as target to immunise at 60% of its population before 2022, it was essential for the African Union’s Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to come together to collectively fight against the common energy.

“We do not want Covid-19 to be circulating in the African population. We want Africans to be immunised against Covid-19, and the only way to do that is by ensuring that we get to a minimum of 60%,” reminded Dr. Mohammed Abdulaziz, representative of the Director General of CDC Africa

He went ahead to reassure Cameroonians that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine which is administered in a single dose is very safe, and congratulated he government of Cameroon for the initiative. “We are very happy that the government of Cameroon has invest in the health security of its people. Let us take advantage of the investment that the government of Cameroon has made.  Let us come out and take these vaccines, so that we protect ourselves and our people against Covid-19. If you vaccinate yourself, it means you are protecting all the people around you against Covid-19.”

During the reception ceremony which took place at the Nsimalen International Airport, the US Chargé d’Affaires in Cameroon just like the representative of CDC-Africa congratulated the government of Cameroon for investing in health, and encouraged Cameroonians to receive vaccines which safe lives.

“I will like to congratulate the Cameroon government for this important investment in the health of people of Cameroon through the vaccinations purchased through the African Union’s initiative to get more vaccines to Africa. This are vaccines from the company Johnson and Johnson, and I want to tell you that they are safe, and I want to really encourage all Cameroonians to get vaccinated. This is the only way we are going to stop the pandemic, and vaccines saves life,” said the US Chargé d’Affaires in Cameroon, Mary Daschbach.

The secretary General of the Ministry of Public Health, Louis Richard Ndjock reiterated that the outbreak of the third and most dangerous variant of the pandemic obliged Cameroon to take drastic response measures, including the intensification of vaccines.

“At a moment when many countries in the world are facing a third phase of the pandemic, the vaccination is showing a positive result on a significant reduction. This gives great hopes for the elimination of the virus, especially in most affected economies.  This necessitates more sensitization, the reinforcement of preventive measures, taking care of infected cases, and above all the intensification of the vaccination,” stated Louis Ndjock.

It should be recalled that Cameroon was affected with the Coronavirus since March 6, 2021. On April 11, 2021, Cameroon received 200, 000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, which permitted the country to launch the first vaccination campaign on April, 12, 2021. The country again through the facilitation of COVAX received 391,200 doses of the AstraZenaca vaccine on April 17, 2021. The country finally received 303,050 doses of the Johnson and Johnson on July 21, 2021, a US donation. The government has as target to vaccinate at least 20% of the total population before the 2022 AFCON. According to information from the Ministry of Public, the country’s response to the vaccines is so far progressing impressively. 

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Antonio Pedro, Director for the Central African Office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

“What we are celebrating here today is the coming together of the ministers of finance with the governors of AFREXINBANK”

You represent the economic commission for Africa in Central Africa and your organisation has been push full in terms of convening African finance and health ministers to come to a common position? Why is the common position important? Why is the common position important?

Once again, congratulations to the government of Cameroon for creating the foundations to ensure that more and more Cameroonians are vaccinated.  They are resources out there that can enable Cameroon to get all the vaccines that it wants. I will also like to congratulate the AFREXINBANK for providing the guarantee that was required for the manufacture of the vaccine to sell out those vaccines. Without the work of AFREXINBANK, we will be last in the cure, so AFREXINBANK has made that possible.

Can you re-explain the concept of double jeopardy and how Africa can get out of that?

When the pandemic started, everyone recognised that this was at the same time a serious health issue, but equally an economic conundrum because people were losing jobs, because people were confined, people were suffering from lockdown measures, the economies were collapsing, and when economies are collapsing, it means that countries do not have resources to buy vaccines, it means they do not have money to invest in their health systems, which are in any case very weak. So if we have more hospitalisations, it means the government needs to invest more to getting these health systems working. That is why that is why we have talked about double jeopardy. It means we are facing to critical interlinked problems that require action at the same time. That is why through our platform, we brought ministers of finance, ministers of economy, and ministers of health on the same table for them to recognise that in action on the health sector, it would hard the economy significantly to allow the minister of finance to give money to the minister of health to buy vaccines to improve the health systems because otherwise everything will collapse. So what we are celebrating here today is the coming together of the ministers of finance with the governors of AFREXINBANK. They are the ones who allowed the AFRWXINBANK to establish the two billion dollars guarantee that facilitate the acquisition of this money

As the presentative of the African Union’s Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) present here today, what can you say about this vaccine?

“The African Union, through the African CDC and the MasterCard Foundation will be supporting Cameroon in ensuring that these vaccines get into the hands of people who need them most,”

Dr. Mohammed Abdulaziz, representative of the Director General of CDC Africa

It is with great pleasure that I represent the president of the Africa CDC in this historic occasion where 158,400 doses of the Johnson and Johnson single-shot vaccine is being received in Cameroon. This is part of a total of 6.4million vaccine doses to be shift to the African Union member states in August 2021. The member states who have ordered vaccines through AVAT will continue to receive shipments for the following months. In collaboration with African Medical Supply platform and Unicef providing logistics and delivery services to the member states. This delivery apart from the history covid-19 advanced procurement shipments signed on March 28 through the AVAT facility for the procurement of 220million doses of the Johnson and Johnson single-shot vaccine with the potential to get an additional 180million dosses. The agreement and the start of the delivery marks the first time that the Africa Union member states have collectively purchased vaccines to safeguard the health of the African population. In total, 400millin doses of vaccine acquired by AVAT are sufficient to immunise a third of the African population.

Let me congratulate the government of Cameroon for being in the forefront of receiving this historic shipment. This shipment is coming from the African Union member states, which is in fulfilment of the commitment made by the Chair of the African Union, Cyril Ramaphosa, and the covid-19 champion to increase the local manufacturing of vaccines on the continent. We also note that the African Union, through the African CDC and the MasterCard Foundation will be supporting Cameroon in ensuring that these vaccines get into the hands of people who need them most, and we continue to be a strong partner with Cameroon in delivering these vaccines to our populations to ensure that many people get vaccinated.

Ingrid KENGNE