The Cost of Delivering COVID-19 Vaccines in Zambia

While Zambia aims to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to 70% of its people by June 30, 2022, the road to getting there is uncertain. The Zambian Ministry of Health reports that, as of February 21, 2022, 21.6% of people were fully
vaccinated. Vaccine doses available in the country are slowly rising, with 6.2 million doses arrived as of February 11, but less than half of those doses have made it into people’s arms. By February 23, only 2.77 million doses had gotten to people. By December 31, 2021, only 7.2% of people had gotten a vaccine, compared to a goal of 40%. Without significant investments in last mile delivery, especially for people at highest risk, Zambia risks missing its next COVID-19 vaccine targets.
CARE estimates that in Zambia, vaccine delivery costs a minimum of $17.18 per fully vaccinated person, or $7.30 per dose delivered. That is 7.2 times more than current global estimates. Even with its robust childhood vaccination system—93% of Zambian children got their first measles vaccine in 2019—Zambia has not been able to get enough COVID-19 vaccines to the last mile.