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Image source, Getty Images
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“The speed and scale of the third wave (of covid-19) in Africa is unlike anything we have seen before,” said Matshidiso Moeti, regional director for Africa at the World Health Organization (WHO), earlier in July.
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A month later, the situation remains critical.
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“In Africa deaths have increased by 80% in the last four weeks“Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general, said at a July 30 press conference.
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“Much of this increase is being driven by the highly transmissible delta variant,” he explained.
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This Thursday, Phionah Atuhebwe, who is responsible for the introduction of new vaccines in Africa for the WHO, reported: “The third wave of the covid-19 pandemic in Africa is still raging in full force.”
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“After a slight drop last week, cases are increasing again, rising by 19% to almost more than 278,000 in this last week,” he detailed about a region that, since the pandemic began, has registered more than 6, 8 million cases.
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Atuhebwe also explained: “Tragically, deaths in Africa hit a record this week, with more than 6,400 deaths recorded. So far more than 172,000 deaths from covid-19 have been recorded in Africa and our hearts go out to all who have lost a loved one. “
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The situation is particularly worrying in a continent where only 1.5% of the population has a complete vaccination schedule.
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In the words of the WHO director, “All regions are at risk, but none more than Africa”.
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“Africa was largely spared from the pandemic in 2020, but not this year. We lack vaccines and we are short of breath,” he wrote last week in the scientific journal. Nature Mosoka Fallah, a contributor to the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and former CEO of the Liberia National Institute of Public Health.
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According to his article, the current fatality rate of covid-19 in Africa is 18% higher than the global average and the situation is even worse with critically ill patients: “About half of those admitted to intensive care die in the first 30 days.”
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Image source, WHO
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“The speed and scale of the third wave (of covid-19) in Africa is unlike anything we have seen before,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s regional director for Africa.
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This Thursday John Nkengasong, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Africa, said: “Over the past few months we have seen the vaccination gap widen between Africa and other parts of the world, and a devastating third wave hit ourO continent“.
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Far from the targets
The vaccination targets against covid-19 established by the WHO are immunize at least 10% of the population of each country by the end of Septemberto 40% by the end of the year and 70% by the middle of next year.
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But as Adhanom acknowledged last week: “We are a long way from achieving those goals.”
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“Following current trends, close to the 70% of African countries will not meet the 10% vaccination target by the end of September, “he said.
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To achieve this, the number of doses administered per week on the continent should rise from the current close to 4 million doses to 21 million. But there are countries where vaccines have not even arrived.
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“This is a very serious problem if we want to take action against this pandemic and put an end to it,” Adhanom said.
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Image source, Reuters
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Only 1.5% of the population in Africa has the complete vaccination schedule.
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Faced with this situation, this Wednesday the WHO called for a moratorium on the administration of booster vaccines until at least the end of September, to try to reach the 10% target.
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“We urgently need to reverse the current situation from a majority of vaccines going to high-income countries to the majority going to low-income countries,” Adhanom said at the time.
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Mamta Murthi, Vice President of Human Development at the World Bank, also said this Wednesday: “The situation we see now is absolutely unacceptable, because a great part of the world continues without being vaccinated and this is a danger for all “.
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For his part, Fallah, speaking from his place as an African, wrote: “Our world as we know it is on the verge of a tipping point; we are facing large numbers of deaths and the collapse of economies and nations.”
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Fallah, who was head of case detection in Liberia during the Ebola epidemic in 2014, sees multiple similarities between that health crisis and the current one: from the number of graves that are dug every day to the unfulfilled promises of help from the most developed countries.
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What is the true meaning of humanity? He wondered. “That all lives are given the same value, regardless of geography or economy.”
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