The African Union has begun monthly shipments of vaccines acquired under its African Vaccine Acquisition Trust, or AVAT, to its member states.

Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's president and the AU's COVID-19 Champion, announced on Thursday that shipments of 6.4 million doses to member states will continue this month.

This follows the decision by AU members to pool their purchasing power back in March through the AVAT. The historic agreement led to the initial purchase of 220 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, with the potential to order an additional 180 million doses.

"This is a momentous step forward in Africa's efforts to safeguard the health and well-being of its people. By working together and by pooling resources, African countries have been able to secure millions of vaccine doses produced right here in Africa. This will provide impetus to the fight against COVID-19 across the continent and will lay the basis for Africa's social and economic recovery," said Ramaphosa in a statement.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention plans to continually ramp up the monthly shipments with a target of delivering almost 50 million vaccines this year. By January, the number of vaccines being released will be in excess of 25 million per month.

John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC, said this vaccine acquisition is a unique milestone for the African continent since it is the first time Africa has undertaken a procurement of this magnitude involving all member states. He also decried vaccine inequity especially for poor countries.

"During the last few months, we have seen the vaccination gap between Africa and other parts of the world widen, and a devastating third wave hit our continent. The deliveries starting now will help us get to the vaccination levels necessary to protect African lives and livelihoods," Nkengasong said.

The acquired vaccine doses are being produced on the African continent at the Aspen Pharmacare facility in Gqeberha, South Africa.

Strive Masiyiwa, AU's COVID special envoy, said delivering the first doses to AU member states is an unprecedented milestone, and AU is deploying efforts to help each member state reach its goal of immunizing 60 percent of Africans.