By Majiarata Latela
Lesotho will start Covid-19 vaccine roll-out next Wednesday, after the first shipment of 36,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in the country this week, yet the government remains silent on the critical issue of corruption risks in the allocation and distribution of the vaccine.
Frontline workers will be the first to receive the inoculation of the vaccine, which was the first consignment of the 132,000 doses expected before May. The initial batch are people who work in the health sector: nurses, drivers, cleaners, doctors and others.
The vaccine is currently reported to be stored away in a cold storage facility at the ministry of health, from where it will be distributed firstly to the two districts of Mafeteng and Butha-Buthe.
“Lesotho currently has 35,000 health workers and that means only 1,000 vaccines will be left after all health workers have been inoculated. The remaining doses will vaccinate selected people like the King and the Prime Minister,” said ministry of health Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) nurse, ‘Mamonaheng Posholi.
AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine is licenced to the Serum Institute of India, which represents part of the first wave of Covid-19 vaccines headed to several low and middle-income countries.
Speaking in an interview with theReporter, World Health Organisation Representative Dr Richard Banda said they have not yet finalised the date for the arrival of the second shipment of the vaccine, but it will be in the next three months.
“The vaccine still has a shelf life and is accompanied by nine experts – who are doctors and nurses. The team of experts will be working hand in hand with the ministry of health and health workers in making sure the right steps are followed for people to get vaccinated,” Dr Banda said.
Prime Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro, for his part, described the acquisition of the vaccine as having been a ‘difficult journey’ which however marks the beginning of a quest to reach a stipulated head immunity.
He noted that Lesotho has a population of about 2million, but only those aged above 16 will be included in the vaccination programme because the vaccine was not tested on people below 16. This means 1.6million people are in line to be vaccinated, with the goal of attaining the head immunity of 60-70 percent.
“However, we will strive to ensure that every Mosotho gets vaccinated by the end of this year. We have been told that due to the need to vaccinate everyone in the world, it is not possible for Lesotho to get everyone vaccinated before the end of 2021, but as the leadership of this country we objected to that since our goal is vaccinate every eligible Mosotho.
“We will do everything in our power to achieve this goal with the help of our development partners. I cannot guarantee a 100 percent success rate, but you can rest assured that you will be kept in the loop at all times.
“I can only pray that this is the last lockdown because we have had enough of it. In the meantime, I plead with Basotho to continue wearing masks, practising social distancing and adhering to WHO safety regulations. Lesotho’s infection rate currently stands at seven percent.”
On the one hand, US Ambassador to Lesotho, Rebecca Gonzales lauded Lesotho for becoming the 10th country in Africa to receive the vaccine from Covax facility.
“I would like to congratulate Lesotho on this incredibly tremendous, importance and momentous day. We are so proud as the United States of America to be part of the initiative to bring vaccines to Lesotho and throughout the whole world, UN states of America has donated $2billion to the Covax facility.
“We look forward to working with our implementing partners and the ministry of health to get ahead of distributing the vaccines and getting people vaccinated,” she indicated.
Lesotho is one of the 92 countries that are set to receive free vaccines from the COVAX facility (a fully subsidised initiative by the World Health Organisation [WHO] to enable poor countries to get free vaccines) in April.
COVAX has committed to donating vaccines to cover only 20 percent of the populations of each of the 92 countries in the facility. These countries, including Lesotho, will hence have to purchase extra vaccines to cover the remainder of their populations.
Meanwhile, the minister of health, Semano Sekatle, last week disclosed that 1,415,115 Basotho are targeted to receive the vaccine.
Sekatle disclosed that three brands of vaccines which will be procured, namely Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is reported to be 66 percent effective; Pfizer 95 percent effective and AstraZeneca 62 percent effective.
Sekatle said three batches have been set out for roll out of the vaccines.
“The first batch of 430,115 people are those at the frontline such as healthcare workers, police officers, journalists, prison workers and inmates, students as well as teachers.
“They will be followed by 394,000 with chronic conditions, like HIV/AIDS, diabetes, heart disease and asthma, among others.
“The third and final batches are those not included in the first two categories, but who are aged 16 and above. Those aged below 16 will not receive the vaccine,” Sekatle said.
When all is said and done, Majoro and Sekatle omitted to mention the measures it will put in place to avoid corruption in the allocation and distribution of the vaccine. Covid-19 has in the past year proved to be ‘an industry’ fraught with large scale corruption and looting. Apart from well-documented incidences of corruption in procurement perpetrated by government officials, police reported that some of the personal protective equipment donated by Chinese philanthropist Jack Ma, was stolen by other government officials from a storage facility in Mafeteng.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) recently described this bane in a report called Covid-19 Vaccines and Corruption Risks: Preventing Corruption in the Manufacture, Allocation and Distribution of Vaccines.
The UNODC indicated that the successful implementation of Covid-19 vaccination programmes will require robust supply systems. Such systems will need to ensure effective vaccine storage, handling and stock management; rigorous temperature controls in the supply chain; and the maintenance of adequate logistics management information systems. This is vital to safeguard the COVID-19 vaccine supply and prevent any interruptions from the point of manufacturing through to service delivery.
“There are corruption risks throughout the entire vaccine deployment process. As an example, vaccines may be stolen from the public supply chain during the transportation process and diverted to the black market or kept for personal use.
“Vaccine supplies are also at risk once they reach the hospital or public health facility administering the vaccinations, if there are no reliable oversight measures in place. Public health facility staff may also steal vaccines for resale in the black market or in their own private practices. This risk is particularly pronounced when supplies are limited, and demand is high, as is the case during a pandemic.
“Limited vaccine supplies may also incentivize those who have the financial resources to bribe health professionals to secure a vaccine for themselves and/or their family. Some health professionals may also demand payoffs from patients to access COVID-19 vaccines, a practice that will be particularly harmful to poor, marginalized and vulnerable groups. Corruption risks in vaccine procurement.”
