Covid-19 in Africa: West Africa wrap
Covid-19 vaccine shipments to Africa must rise from around 20 million a month to 150 million a month on average if the continent is to reach its vaccination goals, says the World Health Organization.
CAPE TOWN, September 27 (ANA) – Covid-19 vaccine shipments to Africa must rise from around 20 million per month to 150 million each month on average if the continent is to fully vaccinate 70% of its people by September 2022, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The global health authority recently raised the alarm over the shortage of vaccines in the region, calling on richer nations to forgo their allocation of vaccines supplied through the Covax facility.
Covax, the global platform to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, has been forced to slash planned deliveries to Africa by 25% this year due to supply shortages and export bans.
On Thursday, the US government committed to giving Ghana 1.3 million Pfizer vaccines, Vice-President Kamala Harris told Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo during a meeting at the White House.
According to reports, the incoming vaccines are in addition to some 1.2 million Moderna vaccines the US donated earlier this month to the West African country.
According to Premium Times Nigeria, the frustration experienced by Nigerians visiting the UK over strict Covid-19 travel protocols has led the British High Commission in Nigeria on Saturday to relax the rules as of October 4.
Reports suggest that the UK government’s decision to place Nigeria on the red list for travellers was taken due to known variants of concern, known high-risk variants under investigation and very high in-country or territory prevalence of Covid-19.
According to the WHO’s Africa regional dashboard, in Senegal, since the first case of Covid-19 was discovered in January 2020 to September 24, 2021, there have been 73,706 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 1,853 deaths. As of September 23, a total of 1,747,662 vaccine doses have been administered in the country.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said its data showed that there is great interest in vaccines among Africans. There are small pockets of resistance in Burkina Faso, although the organisation said this could improve.
According to news reports, Burkina Faso’s health authorities recently received a donation of 400,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from the Chinese government.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher
