Malawi urgently needs Covid-19 vaccines—MSF

The Doctors without Borders (Medicins Sans Frontiers-MSF) Covid-19 response team says Malawi urgently needs access to vaccination to contain infections and deaths caused by the new wave of the pandemic.

Minister of Health Khumbize Chiponda last Thursday said the Covid-19 vaccine may be available in March, but a member of the MSF Covid-19 response team in Malawi Fabrice Weissman has warned that the country’s access to vaccination may not happen before April 2021—and even then, only for a portion of its people—by which time the pandemic might have already peaked, and killed many who could have been protected by vaccination.

Chiponda said the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine will take place in March and that health workers and people with opportunistic conditions will be prioritised.

But in an interview posted on www.msf.org/malawi,  Weissman feared that if the pandemic follows South Africa’s pattern, there may be a high number of severe patients up to mid-February.

He said: “There is a very high probability that the Covid-19 variant 500Y.V2, identified in South Africa, is responsible for this second wave. According to current scientific knowledge, this variant is 50 percent more transmissible than the original strain, leading to a quick surge in the number of people needing hospitalisation.

“This number has doubled every week since the beginning of January. If the epidemic in the country follows the same pattern as in South Africa [where the peak of the second wave was reached after nine weeks], we can expect the number of severe patients in need of hospital care to increase unabated up to mid-February.”

Weissman said Malawi is overwhelmed by the new wave; hence, the need for expediting the processes to bring in vaccines.

He added that while the number of patients in hospitals is overwhelming, there are indications that quite a few of the severe cases do not even reach the hospital and many people are probably dying at home. 

Explained Weissman: “Our next objective, therefore, is to improve the early referral of severe patients, to maximise their chances of survival. But to contain the number of infections and deaths caused by this new wave of the disease, there is need for a vaccine.”

But speaking last week after touring the Elard Alumando Dream Centre of the Community of St Egidio in Blantyre, which is set to become a new Covid-19 testing centre, Chiponda said the vaccines will be rolled out on priority basis.

Said the minister: “A team of experts is working on which of the six vaccines available suits Malawi. Some of the doses [of the vaccine] require temperatures below 80 degrees [Celsius] so we can’t get that. Once they [the experts] are done, we will roll out by March. We are also looking at strategic deployment and storage.”

The six pharmaceutical firms are Pfizer/Biontech, Astrazeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Johnson and Johnson, CureVac and Moderna. There are also other vaccines currently under development in China and Russia. 

Cumulatively, by yesterday, Malawi had recorded recorded 23 963 cases including 702 deaths representing a case fatality rate of 2.9 percent. Of these cases, 1 951 are imported infections and 21 540 are locally transmitted.

In his weekly update, Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 co-chairperson John Phuka stated that most deaths being reported in the communities and in treatment units could be prevented if people seek medical care early enough.

He said: “What everyone should know and accept is that we have the Covid-19 pandemic in our country; that in the second wave we are experiencing massive community transmission and that our response pillars are working hard to stop the spread.

“To ensure that the transmission is stopped, there is need for all of us to accept the results of the Covid-19 testing and adhere to advice from the health workers. The denial that is currently being portrayed by some sections of the society will only make the situation worse. We may lose a lot of people who could be saved if we work in unity.”

The Covid-19 vaccine issue has pitted developed countries against developing countries, with the latter accusing the rich nations of hoarding available vaccines at the expense of underprivileged people in poor countries.

Earlier, the European Union (EU) Delegation in Malawi’s head of development cooperation Ivo Hoefkens said the EU has set aside an 850 million euro package to cover for the Covax facility to help secure 1.3 billion doses of vaccination for 92 low and middle-income countries, including Malawi.

The commitment from the EU should boost Malawi’s efforts to contain the spread of the virus.