Africa is working to catch up on vaccinations against the new coronavirus.
The global goal of fully vaccinating 10 percent of each country’s population by September 30 was set in May by the World Health Assembly (WHO), the WHO’s highest policy-making body.
Nearly 90 percent of high-income countries have already met this target.
Seychelles and Mauritius have fully immunized more than 60 percent of their population, and Morocco has fully immunized 48 percent of its population.
Tunisia, Comoros, and Cape Verde have fully vaccinated more than 20 percent of their populations.
The majority of African countries that have reached the World Health Assembly target have relatively small populations and 40 percent of these countries are small developing island nations.
All of these countries have had adequate vaccine supplies, and many have been able to access doses from different sources, in addition to doses received through Covax, the global platform to ensure equitable access to vaccines.
Half of the 52 African countries that received doses of Covid-19 vaccines fully immunized only 2 percent or less of their populations.
“The most recent data show limited gains, and much remains to be done to reach the WHO target of fully vaccinating 40 percent of the population by the end of this year. Shipments are increasing, but opaque distribution plans remain the main challenge for Africa to reach the target,” said Dr. Richard Mihigo, immunization and vaccine development program coordinator at the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa.
Speaking at a virtual press conference on Thursday, he pointed out that nine African countries, including South Africa, Morocco and Tunisia, had already reached the 10-percent target by the beginning of September, and another six reached the target during the month, thanks to increased vaccine deliveries.
Twenty-three million doses of Covid-19 vaccine arrived in Africa in September, ten times more than in June.
Yet only 60 million Africans are fully vaccinated and only 2 percent of the more than six billion doses of vaccine administered worldwide have been administered on the continent.
Covax is working with donors to identify countries that can absorb and deliver large quantities of vaccine doses and to strengthen its support to countries that have no other source of vaccine supply.
WHO has supported 19 African countries to conduct ongoing action reviews, which analyze all aspects of their immunization campaigns and make recommendations for improvement.
The reviews show that uncertainty around delivery has been a major obstacle for many countries.
The number of Covid-19 cases in Africa has declined by 35 percent to just over 74,000 cases in one week as of September 26, 2021.
Nearly 1,800 deaths have been reported in 34 African countries over the same period.
The Delta variant has been recorded in 39 African countries.
The Alpha variant has been detected in 45 countries and the Beta variant is present in 40 countries.
“Despite the decline in the number of cases, we must remain vigilant and continue to adhere to proven public health and safety measures that we know save lives, such as mask use, regular hand washing, and social distancing, especially as vaccination rates remain low,” said Dr. Mihigo.
TE/fss/as/APA