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The COVAX initiative shipped 504,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, licensed by the Serum Institute of India, to India, and 505,000 syringes to Abidjan, on 26 February 2021. This marks the second batch that has been shipped and delivered to Africa by the COVAX Facility in an unprecedented effort to provide at least 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021.
The vaccine doses were received at Abidjan International Airport by Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Health and Public Hygiene, Dr Eugène Aka Aouélé, accompanied by members of the COVAX Facility – the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) – in addition to the United Nations Development System (UNDS) Resident Coordinator in Côte d’Ivoire and the ambassadors of the European Union countries, whose funding enabled manufacturing, transport and distribution of the vaccine. The vaccines transported by UNICEF came from India (Mumbai), and were transported through Dubai where a shipment of syringes from a Gavi-funded stockpile was collected from UNICEF’s regional supply centre. UNICEF strives to monitor vaccines throughout the supply chain, from the factory gate to the port of entry in each country.