The first factory to produce COVID-19 vaccines in Africa says it has not received enough orders and may stop production within weeks, in what a senior World Health Organization official described Thursday as a “failure” in efforts to achieve vaccine equity.

South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare said that it cannot let its large-scale sterile manufacturing facilities sit idle, and will return instead to making anesthetics. At the outset of the COVID pandemic, the company shifted its production and achieved capacity to produce more than 200 million doses annually of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

“It was widely hailed as a great achievement for Africa, a game-changer for the continent. But it has not been followed up with orders. We have not received any orders from the big multilateral agencies,” Stavros Nicolaou, senior executive for strategic trade development at Aspen Pharmacare, told The Associated Press Thursday.

“COVAX has placed orders for 2.1 billion doses of COVID vaccines and not a single one has been placed with Aspen or any other African manufacturers,” said Nicolaou, referring to the U.N.-backed effort to distribute coronavirus vaccines to poorer countries.

“It’s a cardinal sin to have valuable sterile manufacturing capacity and not put it to use,” said Nicolaou. “We cannot leave this production capacity idle. We will have to repivot from vaccine manufacturing and return to producing anesthetics unless in the short term we get firm orders for our COVID-19 vaccine.”

Nicolaou said the lack of orders “is not great for Africa’s ambition to reduce its dependence on imported vaccines from 99% to 40%. If we fail at this first step, this is bad not just for Aspen but for all others aspiring to make vaccines in Africa.”

The Lagos State Government, through the Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service (LSBTS), has tasked citizens to donate blood voluntarily in other to ensure availability of safe blood and blood products for transfusion in health facilities across the state.

The Permanent Secretary, Lands Bureau, Mr. Olabode Agoro, made this known while receiving representatives of the Lagos State Blood Transfusion Committee at a voluntary blood donor campaign held recently within the premises of the Bureau.

This was contained in a statement titled, ‘Voluntary blood donation is a trait of responsible citizens – LASG,’ made available to newsmen on Wednesday by the Ministry of Information and Strategy.

The statement said Agoro affirmed that the provision of safe and adequate blood was an integral part of every country’s national health care policy and infrastructure.

He added that the establishment of the blood transfusion committee to coordinate all activities related to blood collection, testing, processing, storage, and distribution, through effective organisation and an integrated blood supply network, was impressive.

Agoro, represented by the Director, Administration, and Human Resources, Mr. Murphy Owodeyi, explained that the strengthening of the donor system and effective management, including care and counselling, had made the practice seamless across the metropolis.

“Without concrete recognition of blood transfusion as an integral part of the health care system in Lagos State, the infrastructure, the human and financial resources will not perform optimally,” he opined.

He encouraged civil servants to subscribe to the ideals of blood donation, adding that blood supplies needed to be constantly replenished since whole blood and blood components have a limited shelf-life.

A Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO), the Ultimate Health Management Services, on Wednesday urged its newly appointed Board of Directors to improve health insurance services to ensure universal health coverage.

This call was made by the Managing Director of the HMO, Mr Lekan Ewenla, in a statement on Wednesday, in Abuja after its Annual General Meeting (AGM).

According to the statement, the new members will replace three retiring directors who have completed their terms of office.

The appointment of the three new board members were ratified by the shareholders of the company at the AGM.

Ewenla expressed appreciation to the outgoing officials for being valued board members and transforming the HMO into a world-class organisation operating with innovative work processes and procedures.

The Gombe State Government has announced the suspension of all academic activities in private health institutions in the state for operating below standards and without accreditation.

The Gombe State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Habu Dahiru, said this during a media briefing after the Executive Council Meeting in Gombe, chaired by Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya.

The Gombe State Commissioner of Health said the State Executive Council had noted with concern the proliferation of such schools of health technologies in Gombe State and that it did not augur well with human resources the state needed.

“These schools are not registered properly. They don’t have the pre-requisite structures, facilities, and manpower and the training in has become inadequate. This results in their inability to get certified and they have no license to practice,” said Dr. Dahiru.

He said a committee had been set up to revalidate the existence of such health institutions.

Particularly, Dr. Dahiru said the Executive Council directed the committee, made up of the Commissioners of Justice, Higher Education, Education, Health, and Science, Technology, and Innovation, to look out for all the standard requirements for the existence of such schools in the state.

Dr. Dahiru said another aspect the committee would look out for was the competence of those to supervise the students while on practical in primary healthcare facilities and General Hospitals.

He said the development was worrisome to the government, hence the suspension, until schools provided the availability of required standards before they would be reopened to function.

According to him, any school found lacking in the availability of the standard facilities would be closed down.

Consequently, he cautioned parents to note that the school fees being charged were too high and the students would at the end of the training not be given any certificates or be registered as health practitioners, because the schools were not accredited.