Angola/Mozambique: Mastercard Foundation donates 1.2M Janssen vaccines

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Angola/Mozambique: Mastercard Foundation donates 1.2M Janssen vaccines

11:42 CAT | 30 Nov 2021

File photo: Reuters

The support of one of the world’s largest foundations will boost the fight against Covid-19 with 1.2 million vaccines distributed in Angola and Mozambique, the promoters said in a statement.

Angola received 453,600 doses of Janssen vaccine a week ago, whilst on Friday Mozambique received another 756,000 vaccines of the same brand.

The vaccines are part of a total of 15.2 million that the Mastercard Foundation and the African Centre for Disease Control (CDC) announced they would donate and were acquired under the Saving Lives and Livelihoods initiative.

“This is the first tranche of vaccines to be delivered under the initiative,” and “distribution will be done by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),” they announced.

The initiative aims to develop a strong team for vaccine manufacturing and to strengthen the African CDC’s capacity to oversee vaccination – not least to respond to future outbreaks, they added.

“There is much to be done to rapidly increase vaccination rates: we call on governments, funders, civil society and others to mobilise to save lives and create livelihoods in Africa,” said Reeta Roy, CEO of the Mastercard Foundation, quoted in the statement.

The vaccines procured under the initiative take advantage of an agreement negotiated by the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) earlier this year to purchase 400 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines, as well as a more recent agreement to purchase 50 million Moderna vaccines.

“The AVAT mechanism was created to enable African countries to directly procure vaccines at reduced prices through bulk orders,” also bringing together the African Union and Afreximbank, the statement noted.

The Mastercard Foundation was born in 2006 when the international brand of cards and financial transactions went public in New York and is now one of the largest foundations in the world with approximately US$40 billion (35.28 billion euros) in assets.

Source: Lusa