A World Health Organization (WHO) official on Thursday warned the delay in supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses to African countries could reignite fresh waves of infections in the continent, reported CGTN Africa.
During a weekly virtual briefing, Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa said the COVID-19 vaccine supply crunch combined with new variants could undermine efforts to contain the pandemic in the continent.
“African countries are slipping further behind the rest of the world in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, now accounting for only one percent of the vaccines administered worldwide, down from two percent a few weeks ago,” Moeti said.
The WHO official said only around half of the 37 million doses shipped to the continent have been administered so far. She said African nations need to step up to get the available shots into people’s arms fast.
So far, some 80 million vaccine doses have been delivered to African countries via the COVAX vaccine-sharing program. The vaccine deliveries from India’s Serum Institute were halted in March because of the dramatic resurgence of COVID-19 in India and this has resulted in a shortfall of 140 million doses as India uses the vaccines to inoculate its population.
Meanwhile, India and South Africa are leading efforts at the World Trade Organization for a temporary waiver on intellectual property rights that are preventing the mass production of generic COVID-19 vaccines.
Moeti said she welcomed the United States decision to support these efforts. She said the sooner negotiations are agreed, the sooner the manufacture and rollout of safe and effective vaccines can take place.
Meanwhile, she said one of the fastest and surest ways to save lives is for countries to share their surplus stock of vaccines with countries in need.
Notably, the coronavirus pandemic curve in Africa has plateaued for six weeks, with the number of cases now standing at more than 4.5 million, including 123,000 deaths.
