Africa to get 25% less doses of Covid Vaccines – WHO
Africaās already thin supply of COVID-19 vaccines has taken another significant hit, with the World Health Organizationās Africa director saying Thursday that for various reasons, including the rollout of booster shots, āwe will get 25% less doses than we were anticipating by the end of the year.”
Matshidiso Moetiās comments to reporters came as the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said just over 3% of people across the African continent have been fully vaccinated. That coverage drops to around 1.7% in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the WHO
African health officials are dismayed by Wednesdayās announcement that the global COVAX effort to distribute vaccines to low-and middle-income countries is again cutting its delivery forecast. That revision, Moeti told reporters, is āin part because of the prioritization of bilateral deals over international solidarity.ā
The COVAX challenges, along with export controls on vaccine doses and the introduction of booster shots by some countries, āreally means at the end there has to be a calculation, a projection that we will get 25% less doses than we were anticipating before the end of the year,ā she said.
Moeti noted that while COVAX has delivered over 5 million vaccine doses to African countries in the past week, āthree times as many doses have been thrown away in the United States aloneā since March.
āEvery dose is precious,ā Moeti said. āIf companies and countries prioritize vaccine equity, this pandemic would be over quickly.ā The WHO says the target of vaccinating 10% of people in Africa by the end of this month is being missed. The goal is to vaccinate 40% by the end of the year.
The Africa CDC says 145 million vaccine doses have been procured across the continent of 1.3 billion people, and 111 million of them, or 77%, have been administered.
But far more are needed, and the rollout of booster shots by some richer countries including the United States also has caused alarm. The WHO director-general on Wednesday called for a delay in administering boosters until the end of the year to address sharp vaccine inequality.
āThe problem we have with the third (booster) doses is we have not seen enough science behind thatā on when they are needed, Africa CDC director John Nkengasong told reporters on Thursday. āWithout that, we are gambling … It is really still confusing to me why we are moving toward a vast recommendation to third doses.ā
He said he fully understands that people with vulnerable immune systems need to boost their protection, but for āotherwise healthy individuals, I just havenāt seen enough science.ā
African countries have recently seen a strong resurgence in cases driven by the delta variant, but the WHO Africa director reported a decrease of nearly 25% in new cases last week, āthe steepest drop in eight weeks since the peak in July.ā
With the worldās lowest vaccine coverage, however, the continent is left vulnerable to another surge or even another variant of the coronavirus, as the highly infectious delta variant already drives outbreaks in many African countries.
AP