Pandemic-Mitigation
How Africa could use Solar Tech to Distribute Covid-19 Vaccines By Nell Lewis
AS VACCINES START TO BE ADMINISTERED across the world, the beginning of the end of the pandemic is at last in sight. But some countries are at risk of missing out. While the African Union has secured 270 million vaccine doses for distribution across the continent, in addition to those promised by the global vaccine program COVAX, this could still fall short of demand for the region. Even if enough vaccines are secured, there is an enormous logistical challenge: how to transport temperature-sensitive vaccines to places without reliable electricity and refrigeration. The answer is in developing a "cold chain" -- a network of vehicles, fridges and cold rooms -that can be used to transport the vaccine seamlessly from the manufacturer to the immunization point. "We should have been designing the cold chain the day we started designing a vaccine," says Toby Peters, a professor in cold economy at the University of Birmingham, in the UK, who is working with the UN-backed Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain (www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/
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which can be kept at standard refrigerator temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 46 "We knew we were going to have to move billions degrees Fahrenheit), will be more feasible. of vaccines around the world, all the way out to rural Even so, existing cold chain networks will not communities, and that we'd need a temperature- be enough. Without new technology, up to 25% of controlled environment," he adds. vaccine supplies could be lost, says Peters. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has to be kept Solar-powered Refrigeration at minus 75 degrees Celsius (minus 103 degrees There are almost 600 million people in Africa Fahrenheit,) while Moderna's can be kept at minus living off the grid, and rural clinics often lack a grid 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit.) connection. These temperature requirements will be out of This is where solar energy comes in, says Hugh reach for most African countries, says Peters, but Whalan, CEO of PEG Africa (https://pegafrica.com), a options like the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, company that offers pay-as-you-go solar-powered centre-excellence-rwanda-aims-support-african-farmersand-rural) to improve refrigeration networks in Africa.
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May-June 2021
DAWN
www.africabusinessassociation.org
