CENTRAL AFRICAEAST AFRICANEWS & POLITICS

EU: Covid-19 vaccine supply no longer an issue for Africa

By Shifaan Ryklief Last updated Feb 10, 2022

With just over 11% of the African population fully vaccinated against Covid-19, European Union officials say vaccine supply is no longer an issue.

The European Union said it would continue to assist in delivering vaccines to Africa, with the aim of supplying 450 million doses by mid-year. Picture: Pixabay/torstensimon

CAPE TOWN, February 10 (ANA) – With just over 11% of the African population fully vaccinated against Covid-19, European Union (EU) officials say vaccine supply is no longer an issue.

Since the start of the global pandemic in early 2020, there has been much talk around the imbalance in vaccine access and distribution between rich and poor nations.

The World Health Organization (WHO) criticised the “shocking imbalance” and launched the Covax scheme in its bid for fairer distribution to many nations on the African continent.

According to the BBC, millions of vaccine doses produced in China, the US and Europe have been delivered to around 100 countries through the scheme.

In recent months the supply of jabs has exponentially increased, with reports by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) showing a total of around 392 million doses being administered out of 603 million available.

The figure not only indicates sufficient supply, but also an administration rate of 64%, highlighting a number of other issues such as logistical problems, vaccine hesitancy and poor healthcare infrastructure.

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told a news conference in Lyon following a meeting of EU health and foreign ministers that “the problem seems no longer to be the level of donations” and more of absorption.

He added that the factors behind lagging vaccine administration would be the key issues at next week’s summit of EU and African Union leaders in Brussels.

According to Al Jazeera, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU had agreed to increase spending “to accelerate vaccinations in African countries where vaccination rates are the lowest”, while at the same time continuing to deliver vaccines with the aim of supplying 450 million doses by mid-year.

– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa