The challenge of the COVID-19 vaccines cold chain in Africa

A large proportion of African countries do not have the necessary infrastructure for the storage of vaccines at low temperatures. Solar cooling can be a solution in rural areas.
 
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced that the UN-led joint COVAX initiative has started shipping about 90 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa starting in February 2021. As production capacity increases and more vaccines become available, the COVAX program aims to vaccinate at least 20% of Africans by providing up to 600 million doses by the end of 2021 (1). To complement the COVAX objectives, the African Union has secured  270 million additional doses of vaccine for the continent. At least 50 million doses will be available from April to June 2021 from Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (2).