The World Health Organisation says 38 African countries have received more than 25 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, and 30 have started vaccination campaigns.
WHO, in a statement on Thursday, said 16 million vaccine doses were shipped to 27 countries, compared to countries in other regions that accessed vaccines much earlier.
Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa said, although Africa received vaccines late and in limited quantities, but a lot of ground were covered in a short time.
Ms Moeti explained that the success achieved within the time was due to the continent’s vast experience in mass vaccination campaigns and the determination of its leaders and people to effectively curb the COVID-19 pandemic.
She noted that the initial rollout phase in some African countries has reached a far higher number.
“Just two weeks after receiving COVAX-funded AstraZeneca vaccines, Ghana has administered more than 420,000 doses and covered over 60 per cent of the targeted population in the first phase in the Greater Accra region – the hardest hit by the pandemic,” the statement said.
The global health organisation estimated that more than 5.6 million vaccines reached Morocco in the last seven weeks, while Angola inoculated over 49,000 people including 28,000 health workers in the past week, saying Ghana delivered about 90 per cent COVID-19 vaccines to health workers.
Ms Moeti, however, called for more doses to be supplied to Ghana, Rwanda, and other countries on the brink of running dry, saying, “countries are clocking an impressive vaccination pace, but we must ensure this speed doesn’t slow down to a crawl.”
“A few countries in Africa have halted or postponed their use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, following the suspension of the vaccine by some countries in Europe. This precautionary measure is based on reports of rare blood coagulation disorders in people who had received the vaccine. The suspension is regarding one specific batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not been distributed to Africa,” the statement added.
It explained further that the WHO’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety was assessing the reports on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to gain a full understanding and will communicate its findings.
Based on what is currently known, WHO considers that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh its risks and recommends that vaccinations continue.
“Vaccinations are occurring as more than four million COVID-19 cases have now been reported on the African continent, with 43,000 new cases in the past week, and 108,000 lives lost. In the past month, new cases have decreased by 41 per cent compared with the previous month, but there is an upward trend in 12 countries including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya and Guinea (where an outbreak of Ebola is also ongoing),” the statement added.
