‘Only 11 per cent of Africans vaccinated against COVID-19’

The World Health Organisation African Region (WHOAfro), yesterday, said amid improved COVID-19 vaccine supplies, the continent was struggling to expand rollout, with only 11 per cent of the population fully vaccinated.

The WHOAfro, at an online press conference organised by API, advised that the vaccination rate needs to increase six times if Africa must meet the 70 per cent target set for the middle of this year.

The organisation, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and partners are launching a new initiative to resolve the bottlenecks.

WHO revealed that till date, Africa has received more than 587 million doses, 58 per cent through the COVAX Facility, 36 per cent from bilateral deals and six per cent via the Africa Vaccines Acquisition Trust (AVAT) of the African Union. In January 2022, 96 million jabs were shipped to the continent, more than double of what it got six months ago. Increasing deliveries have eased shortages and turned the spotlight on the need for countries to rapidly ramp up vaccine rollout.

“The world has finally heard our calls. Africa is now accessing the vaccines it has demanded for far too long. This is a dose of hope for this year,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.

She added: “However, a dependable pipeline must go hand in hand with operational funding to move doses out of depots and into people’s arms. WHO and partners are working with countries to urgently fix operational challenges, including supporting health workers to speed up vaccine delivery, save lives and beat back this pandemic.”

The global agency said currently, six million people are vaccinated on the average every week in Africa, and the number needed to increase to 36 million to reach the 70 per cent global threshold.

Despite Mauritius and Seychelles having met the target, with seven others vaccinating 40 per cent of their populations, vaccination rates on the continent remain low. Twenty-one countries have fully vaccinated less than 10 per cent of their populaces, while 16 have vaccinated less than five per cent, and three other fully inoculating less than two per cent.

The continent is now emerging from its fourth pandemic wave driven by the Omicron variant. Cases have declined for the third straight week. Over the past week, cases dropped by 15 per cent, compared with the week before, while deaths fell slightly by five per cent.
In spite of the overall decline in fatalities, North Africa reported a 25 per cent rise in weekly deaths.

So far, the continent has recorded 10.8 million cases and over 239,000 deaths.