Africa To Experience COVID Vaccine Shortage -WHO
The World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that the supplying of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa is about to stop, leaving several Africans, including people that are vulnerable to severe illness and death, exposed to the disease.
WHO said that, between February and May 2021, about 18.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered to African countries through COVAX facility.
Still stating that, the shipment of COVID vaccine have slowed down in Africa due to a total dependence on India, and since they are severely battling with the pandemic, so the push for COVID-19 vaccine production in Africa is the best solution.
Dr. Matshidiso Moeti (WHO Regional Director for Africa), said all these during a virtual press briefing on “Financial COVID-19 vaccines in Africa,” encouraged wealthy countries that have vaccinated a significant number of their population to share part of their COVID vaccine with other low and middle-income countries.
Sharing of vaccine doses from wealthy countries is a vital part of the solution to Africa’s COVID-19 vaccine supply problem.
There are so many inequalities across countries as regards access to COVID vaccine. Seychelles is one of the most vaccinated countries in the world, having about 67% vaccinated citizens amidst it’s population who have collected at least one dose.
While in 14 African countries about less than 1% of the population has collected a single does of the COVID-19 vaccine and four countries hasn’t started administering the vaccine.
She stated that, Africa was expecting 66 million COVID-19 vaccine doses via COVAX from February to May, but obtained 18.2 million vaccine doses.
Read also: COVID-19 Vaccine Set to be Manufactured in Ghana
Antonio Guterres (UN Secretary-General) stated on Twitter that, out of 1.4 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the world, Africa received less than 2%. Global equitable and sustainable vaccine deployment is the fastest path towards a quick and fair recovery for everyone
Follow Naija.fm on our social media handles Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to keep up with trending news, breaking news, entertainment news.
