Majority of African Countries Set to Miss Vaccination Targets

As COVID-19 cases in Africa rise for the third week running and vaccines are increasingly scarce, 47 of Africa’s 54 countries, including Ethiopia, are set to miss the September target of vaccinating 10pc of their people unless the continent receives 225 million additional doses, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

As Africa nears five million COVID-19 cases, numbers are rising week-on-week and increased by nearly a fifth to over 88 000 in the week ending on June 6, 2021. The pandemic is trending upwards in 10 African countries, with four nations recording a spike in new cases of over 30pc in the past seven days, compared with the previous week. Over 70pc of all new cases were reported in Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia and over half were recorded in nine southern African countries.

“As we close in on five million cases and a third wave in Africa looms, many of our most vulnerable people remain dangerously exposed to COVID-19. Vaccines have been proven to prevent cases and deaths, so countries that can, must urgently share COVID-19 vaccines. It's do or die on dose sharing for Africa,” said Matshidiso Moeti (MD), the WHO regional director for Africa.

At 32 million doses, Africa accounts for less than one percent of the over 2.1 billion doses administered globally. Just two percent of the continent’s nearly 1.3 billion people have received one dose and only 9.4 million Africans are fully vaccinated.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Health is also facing hiccups in its plan to have a fifth of the population vaccinated by the end of the year. So far, just under two million doses have been administered to priority groups including health workers and the elderly. The country received 2.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX facility in early March and then an additional 300,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China later that month.

The Ministry was also expecting to receive 5.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab from COVAX in April but the shipment never materialised.