The African continent may not reach the goal of vaccinating 70% of its 1.3 billion inhabitants against COVID-19 until the second half of 2024, a goal already achieved by some of the richest countries on the planet, said Tuesday. World Health Organization.
The warning comes as the world faces a further increase in COVID19 cases due to the highly infectious omicron variant. Health authorities in South Africa, the first country to announce the variant, said that initial information indicates that this mutation causes a less severe and shorter illness, and with a shorter hospital stay. However, some rich countries were quick to authorize a booster vaccine, when less than 8% of Africa’s population has received two doses.
“We will never get over this if we don’t work together as one world,” said Flavia Senkubuge, president of the South African College of Medicine, during a WHO briefing.
Only 20 of the 54 countries in Africa have fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to at least 10% of their inhabitants. And 10 nations have applied the complete inoculation scheme to less than 2% of their inhabitants.
WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti rejected claims that African nations were allowing large numbers of vaccines to go to waste due to poor infrastructure and people’s reluctance to inoculate.
The African continent has received about 434 million doses, and some 910,000 have expired in 20 countries, representing less than a quarter of 1%, Moeti noted.
The main challenge in Africa continues to be access to vaccine supplies, he added.
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