(3 minutes read)
· Over 225 million coronavirus vaccines are urgently necessary for African nations to prevent nearly 90% of countries on the continent from missing the target of vaccinating a tenth of their respective populations by September
· WHO said that as Africa heads toward a sad milestone and a third wave looms, many African lives are at stake
· With vaccine stocks and shipments drying up, the continents’ vaccination coverage for the first dose remains stuck at around 2% and about 1% in sub-Saharan Africa
Over 225 million coronavirus vaccines are urgently necessary for African nations to prevent nearly 90% of countries on the continent from missing the target of vaccinating a tenth of their respective populations by September. WHO said that as Africa heads toward a sad milestone and a third wave looms, many African lives are at stake? With vaccine stocks and shipments drying up, the continents’ vaccination coverage for the first dose remains stuck at around 2% and about 1% in sub-Saharan Africa.
COVID-19 cases on the African continent will soon pass the 5 million mark. Total deaths in the continent were 133,000. In the past seven days, 88,000 cases were reported, an increase of 19% over the previous week. Less than 1% of the over 2.1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses administered globally were received by Africans.
Vaccine deliveries to Africa took a blow as supplies from India dried up on account of the spread of pandemic in that country. The US President Biden’s plan to purchase and donate half a billion Pfizer vaccines to 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries including members of African Union, can be a ray of hope for the continent.
