US drugmaker Pfizer has launched trials for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, which is said to have 95% efficacy rate. The trial programme will run in Rhode Island, Texas, New Mexico and Tennessee. Pfizer is one of several drugmakers whose Covid-19 vaccines have shown promising results in human bodies, raising global optimism that the first vaccine could be distributed as early as this year or early 2021. This comes at a time President Paul Kagame and other leaders have been appealing for equitable access to vaccines once they are available. Addressing a virtual G-20 summit over the weekend, Kagame urged world leaders to come together in the fight to end the Covid-19 pandemic through equitable distribution of vaccines. It also emerged that Rwanda was looking for $15 million for the vaccine once it is finally on the market. Working ahead of time, Rwanda has already established that the $15m would go towards immunizing at least 30 per cent of the population, and these will be mostly the at-risk people like medical workers, those with advanced age and people with underlying conditions. Globally, the virus has affected over 57 million people and claimed 1.4 million lives, wrecked businesses and economies. Therefore, quick and strategic procurement and distribution of vaccines, particularly for African countries, which President Kagame says do not have access to the monetary policy tools, is critical. African countries must prepare now for day one of the vaccines availability, and work together on how to navigate through some of the bottlenecks that might limit access to it. These include setting guidelines and criteria for access such as identifying and prioritising groups of people who are more susceptible as a potential critical population. For instance, the first beneficiaries should be high-risk groups, including health workers, elderly people and those with underlying health conditions.
