By Winnie Kamau
Nairobi, Kenya: The rise in vaccine shipments to Africa is a welcome move, the vaccines have come when the surged cases that have been reported have slowly dropped.
It is reported that cases have dropped by 18% from over 282,000 to 230,500 in the week ending on 25 July.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) attributed the decline to the low numbers reported by South Africa, which accounts for 37% of all reported cases, and Tunisia, which accounts for 8% in Africa.
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) says 6.67million cases have so far been reported with 22 African countries reported cases risen by over 20% for at least two weeks running in the week to 25th July and reported deaths rose in 17 African countries to 6,300.
Currently, there are 3 variants of the COVID19 virus since it was first reported in 2020, according to Africa’s CDC the highly transmissible Delta variant has been found in 26 African countries, while the Alpha variant has been detected in 38 countries and Beta variant in 35.
WHO Africa’s Regional Director, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti noted the urgent need for vaccines in the continent as she spoke during a virtual press conference with the Africa CDC.
“Africa is still in the throes of a third wave. The limited slowdown in cases is heartening and cause for very cautious optimism, but we are far from out of the woods yet. We must all stay vigilant. One-third of all African countries are still living through a dangerous resurgence and we must stick with the prevention measures that we know save lives, like mask-wearing, good hand hygiene, and physical distancing,” said Dr. Moeti.
The Director of Africa CDC, Dr. John Nkengasong welcomed the donations coming into the continent and appealed to the donors to be mindful of the expiry dates of the vaccines so that they do not end up not being used.
“If vaccines come with short expiry dates then they will not be used, the vaccines donated should have more than 3-4 month shelflife,” said Dr. Nkengasong.
Adding “As a continent that is deprived of the much-needed vaccines we are currently not thinking of Boosters but we are thinking how we can increase the 1.6% of vaccinated people,” he said.
So far, 1.6% of Africa’s population have been fully vaccinated as the COVID-19 vaccine shipments to Africa are rapidly ramping up from multiple sources after a near-halt to deliveries in recent months.
Nearly 4 million doses from the COVAX facility arrived in Africa last week of July, compared with just 245 000 doses from the facility throughout the month of June. The continent needs up to 820 million doses, considering a two-dose schedule to fully vaccinate 30% of Africa’s 1.3 billion population by the end of 2021.
The COVAX facility says they aim to ship 520 million doses to Africa by the end of 2021. COVID-19 vaccine deliveries from the African Union’s Africa Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) are picking up, with a projected rise to 10 million each month from September. Around 45 million doses are expected from AVAT by the year’s end.
WHO estimates that 80 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have arrived in Africa and only 21 million people in Africa are fully vaccinated while the high-income countries have allocated 61 times more doses per person than in low-income countries.
“There’s light at the end of the tunnel on vaccine deliveries to Africa but it must not be snuffed out again. I urge all countries with surplus doses to urgently share more in the spirit of life-saving solidarity and enlightened self-interest because no country is safe until all countries are safe. I urge African countries to gear up and get ready, as our drought is finally ending,” said Dr. Moeti.
Africa CDC Director says their target is to double up the projected 30% of its population by 2022.
“Our target is to immunize 60% of our population of 1.2billion by the end of 2022 and we will need about 1.6 billion doses of the 2 dose vaccines” notes Dr. Nkensonga.
Tanzania is the newest member that joins COVAX on June 15th and the latest African country that has kicked off its COVID-19 vaccination campaign after receiving the first delivery of around 1 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from the United States Government, through COVAX on 24 July.
COVAX says they recently clinched new deals with Sinopharm and Sinovac to rapidly supply 110 million more doses to low-income countries. COVAX and the World Bank are set to further boost COVID-19 vaccine supply for developing countries through a new cost-sharing arrangement that allows low-income countries to purchase doses beyond the fully donor-subsidized doses they are already receiving from COVAX they say.
