Eswatini Plans for Total Vaccine Coverage

ADF STAFF

Eswatini’s government aims to leverage fiscal responsibility and a global vaccine distribution plan co-led by the World Health Organization to ensure that everyone in the nation receives a COVID-19 vaccine.

The country is participating in the COVAX global vaccine plan that Eswatini officials hope will cover 20% of its people. The kingdom wants to buy enough additional vaccines from COVAX to cover the remaining 80% for which Eswatini has set aside nearly $13.3 million. The nation has a population of just over 1.1 million.

Eswatini officials are open to other distribution plans because vaccine supplies are expected to be limited.

“We are aware of the fact that [COVAX] may not be able to supply enough vaccines to cover the whole population,” Simon Zwane, principal secretary of Eswatini’s Health Ministry, told Reuters.

Eswatini officials are most interested in the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca and Oxford University that first was used in the United Kingdom, according to a Business Insider South Africa report.

Neighboring South Africa announced the purchase of 1.5 million AstraZeneca doses to protect the nation’s health care workers in early January, and Kenyan officials reported that country will start receiving 24 million AstraZeneca doses in February, the Associated Press reported.

Donated medical equipment and supplies from other African nations and the U.S. government have helped Eswatini treat patients as it waits for the vaccine. It was one of several African countries that received masks, visors, hygiene caps, medical gowns, hydroalcoholic gel and other items from Morocco in June.

“It is highly appreciated that an African country has the initiative to support another member country of the African Union,” Amira Elfadil, AU commissioner for social affairs, told Anadolu Agency. “It is also to be highly appreciated that the medical supplies donated by Morocco are locally produced in Morocco by Moroccan companies.”

The U.S. has contributed roughly $5.4 million in goods and services toward Eswatini’s COVID-19 fight. The money was used to:

• Equip hospitals, clinics and public health institutions.
• Provide training, resources and protection equipment to front-line health workers.
• Improve testing, surveillance and rapid-response capabilities.
• Develop education materials about ways to prevent the disease from spreading.
• Help deliver critical medications to patients during the pandemic.

“We are so grateful to the American government for their generosity and warm-heartedness, which they have shown not only in this COVID-19 pandemic, but always,” Zwane said in a prepared statement. “This will go a long way in assisting the kingdom to respond more effectively to this pandemic, particularly to our beloved front-line workers.”

Eswatini unveiled its vaccine-procurement plans as the country confronted a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections and deaths that began in mid-December 2020. Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini was among those who died after testing positive.

Eswatini Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku told SABC News that unnecessary travel and large gatherings were responsible for the surge. In response, officials imposed an 8 p.m. curfew and banned night vigils, gatherings of more than 20 people and the consumption of liquor at gatherings. The government also began door-to-door COVID-19 screening and testing around the capital city of Mbabane.