Nairobi, October 20 Vaccination against covid-19 stagnated in half of African countries, while doses administered monthly fell by more than 50% between July and September, according to an analysis published today by the World Health Organization (WHO). ).
Although Africa is far from reaching the global goal of protecting 70% of the population by the end of the year, modest progress has been made in vaccinating high-risk population groups, particularly the elderly, said the WHO.
However, the percentage of people with the full complement of primary vaccinations (one dose of Johnson & Johnson and two doses of other vaccines) has barely moved in 27 of 54 African countries in the past two months (August 17 – August 16). ).
In addition, 23 million doses were administered in September, 18% less than those recorded in August and 51% less than the 47 million in July.
The number of doses delivered last month is also about a third of the peak of 63 million reached in February 2022.
However, the UN agency sees signs of improvement this month, with 22 million doses administered as of October 16, representing 95% of the September total.
Overall, as of October 16, only 24% of the continent’s population had completed their primary vaccination series compared to 64% of global coverage.
Liberia has now joined Mauritius and the Seychelles as one of only three countries to exceed 70% of people with full vaccination coverage, although Rwanda is also close to reaching this milestone.
Despite these findings, at the current vaccination rate, Africa is expected to reach the global target of 70% of people with a full round of primary vaccinations by April 2025.
“The end of the covid-19 pandemic is in sight, but while Africa is far behind the rest of the world in achieving widespread protection, there is a dangerous gap the virus can exploit to return with a bang.” WHO regional official for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, warned the director in a statement.
“The top priority is to protect our most vulnerable populations from the worst effects of covid-19,” Moeti stressed.
Although difficult access to vaccines undermined vaccination efforts in 2021, these problems were largely solved this year with African countries receiving an average of 67 doses per 100 people compared to 34 doses per 100 people at the end. of 2021.
The continent received 936 million doses of vaccines, of which 62% came from the COVAX mechanism, a global platform promoted by, among others, the WHO, which aims to ensure equal access to the coronavirus vaccine.
“We are now victims of our own success. Since vaccines have helped reduce the number of infections, people are no longer afraid of Covid-19 and very few are willing to get vaccinated,” Moeti added.
To date, Africa has recorded over 12 million coronavirus infections, of which over 255,900 have resulted in deaths, according to the latest data released today by the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC, an agency dependent on the Union African). EFE
pa / jgb
