{"doi":"10.1101/2020.08.13.20147595","title":"The operational impact of deploying SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in countries of the WHO African Region","abstract":"BACKGROUND: When available, SARS-CoV-2 vaccines will be deployed to countries with limited immunization systems. METHODS: We conducted an immunization capacity assessment of a simulated WHO African Region country using region-specific data on immunization, population, healthcare workers (HCWs), vaccine cold storage capacity (quartile values for national and subnational levels), and characteristics of influenza vaccines to represent future SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. We calculated monthly increases in vaccine doses, doses per vaccinator, and cold storage volumes for four-month SARS-CoV-2 vaccination campaigns targeting risk groups compared to routine immunization baselines. FINDINGS: Administering SARS-CoV-2 vaccines to risk groups would increase total monthly doses by 27.0% for ≥65 years, 91.7% for chronic diseases patients, and 1.1% for HCWs. Assuming median nurse density estimates adjusted for absenteeism and proportion providing immunization services, SARS-CoV-2 vaccination campaigns would increase total monthly doses per vaccinator by 29.3% for ≥65 years, 99.6% for chronic diseases patients, and 1.2% for HCWs. When we applied quartiles of actual African Region country vaccine storage capacity, routine immunization vaccine volumes exceeded national-level storage capacity for at least 75% of countries, but subnational levels had sufficient storage capacity for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for at least 75% of countries. INTERPRETATION: In the WHO African Region, SARS-CoV-2 vaccination campaigns would substantially increase doses per vaccinator and cold chain capacity requirements over routine immunization baselines. Pandemic vaccination campaigns would add volume to national-level stores already at their limits, but sufficient capacity exists at subnational levels. Immediate attention to strengthening immunization systems is essential to support pandemic responses. FUNDING: None.","journal":"medRxiv","year":2020,"id":120971,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.853,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":559410,"name":"Joanie Robertson","orcid":"0000-0002-6648-2976","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":559411,"name":"Jui-Shan Hsu","orcid":"0000-0001-6382-1920","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":226542,"name":"Stephen Yu","orcid":"0000-0002-0107-5771","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":227086,"name":"Amanda J. Driscoll","orcid":"0000-0003-1385-960X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":559412,"name":"Sarah Williams","orcid":"0000-0002-7413-0233","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":415859,"name":"Wilbur H. Chen","orcid":"0000-0001-7741-5536","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":225894,"name":"Meagan C. Fitzpatrick","orcid":"0000-0002-5248-2668","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":299788,"name":"Samba O. Sow","orcid":"0000-0002-6335-5066","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":560016,"name":"Robin Biellik","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":560017,"name":"Jean‐Marie Okwo‐Bele","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":38212,"name":"Kathleen M. Neuzil","orcid":"0000-0001-9480-2714","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":61306,"name":"Justin R. Ortiz","orcid":"0000-0002-3138-5965","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":13,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:14:38.147936Z","pmid":"32817984","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}