Matshidiso Moeti - Afrikan Heroes

Covid-19 Africa: What is happening with vaccine supplies?

August 1, 2021

By Peter Mwai

There are growing concerns that supply shortages in many African countries are holding back the continuing rollout of their vaccination programmes. The World Health Organization (WHO) says a large number of poorer countries relying on the global vaccine sharing scheme Covax do not have enough doses to continue vaccinating.

The UN and the Africa Centres for Disease Control (CDC) have already urged countries with surplus supplies to donate them to parts of Africa where they’re needed.

Matshidiso Moeti, regional director for WHO in Africa

What is happening with second doses?

Many African countries followed advice from the WHO to administer as many first doses as possible and not stockpile vaccines for second doses.

It had said in May that providing a first dose to as many people as possible was the highest priority.

Some countries have also been under pressure to use vaccines urgently or risk them passing their expiry dates.

Why some African countries are struggling to use their vaccines

These factors have contributed to a major shortage of doses for second jabs, principally of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Ghana has been using doses redistributed from DR Congo to administer second doses. Most African countries have got their vaccines under the Covax scheme, and these were largely sourced from the Serum Institute of India.

However, India halted vaccine exports in response to its own urgent needs, and manufacturers faced issues with ramping up production in a short space of time.

How does the Covax scheme work?

The Covax programme – backed by the WHO and other multilateral bodies – aims to supply 600 million doses to Africa, enough to vaccinate at least 20% of the population.

The WHO says Africa needs 200 million doses to vaccinate 10% of its population by September this year.

“As supplies dry up, dose-sharing is an urgent, critical and short-term solution to ensuring that Africans at the greatest risk of Covid-19 get the much-needed protection,” says WHO’s Matshidiso Moeti.

How has the vaccine rollout progressed?

In Africa, only about two doses of vaccine have been administered per 100 people, compared with an average of 68 doses per 100 in high-income countries.

And less than 1% of Africa’s population has been fully vaccinated.

Deliveries of vaccine supplies under the WHO-backed Covax programme started in February, and most countries in Africa signed up and received vaccine doses.

Some countries are also getting donations from China, Russia, India and the UAE.

Only Tanzania, Burundi and Eritrea are yet to receive vaccines.

Now, some countries have exhausted the initial vaccine supplies they received from the Covax scheme, while others have had a slow uptake of jabs.

The slow rate of vaccination is caused partly by issues around distributing the vaccines, such as the lack of health infrastructure and staff.

But there are fears that vaccine hesitancy and scepticism could be playing a role.

“While we call for vaccine equity, Africa must also knuckle down and make the best of what we have,” said Matshidiso Moeti, regional director for WHO in Africa.

Seven African countries have used up all of vaccines they received through Covax and another seven have administered over 80%.

But 23 countries have used less than half of the doses they have received so far, including four countries now seeing resurgence in cases.

There are now more than a million AstraZeneca doses in 18 countries that need to be used before their expiry at the end of August, the WHO says.

What’s happened to vaccinations in South Africa?

South Africa, the country on the continent hit hardest by coronavirus, has been slow to administer Covid-19 vaccines.

The government says this was caused by factors out of its control. It delayed an initial vaccination plan using the AstraZeneca vaccine due to concerns about its efficacy against a new variant of coronavirus.

It sold on the vaccine doses it had bought from India to the African Union, which distributed the doses elsewhere.

It started vaccinating on 17 February after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is administered as a single dose and has been shown to be effective against the variant.

But the programme was put on hold in mid-April because of concerns about rare blood clot cases in the US. Vaccinations resumed in late April.

It started vaccinating using the Pfizer vaccine in mid-May.

So far, more than two million out of the population of 59 million in South Africa have been vaccinated – about half a million of them with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine (which is a single-dose) and the rest with the Pfizer vaccine.

This piece was originally published on 20 February 2021, but is updated regularly to include the latest information.

Peter Mwai is of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

WHO Raises Alarm at the Rate of COVID-19 Spread in Africa

April 15, 2020

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that Africa stands to be the next and last epicenter of the Covis-19 disease ravaging most part of the world today if nothing concrete is done by Africa’s leadership. With more than 10,000 cases, the novel coronavirus is fast spreading across Africa, and a lot of work needs to be done, the world health body said on Thursday. “This pandemic is continuing to rapidly evolve in Africa. There are now more than 10,000 confirmed cases across the African continent and over 500 people have died,” says WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, in a joint media briefing with the World Economic Forum.

WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti

She said recovery rates in Africa are at 9.4% – slightly lower than that of other regions. This is because, Moeti said, “there are people in our region with pre-existing health conditions and health systems are weaker.” She went on to say that a lot of work needs to be done as the continent is “facing massive challenges in terms of procurement of supplies and equipment that is needed.” She added that “as the epidemic spreads to provinces and districts, the response needs to decentralize – expanding testing capacities beyond capital cities, using the existing polio infrastructure, and engaging community health workers, volunteers and partners,” according to the WHO official.

Moeti said 18 countries in Africa still have fewer than 20 confirmed coronavirus cases, and there is still an opportunity to contain the threat. Over 11,400 coronavirus cases have so far been reported in 52 of the 54 countries on the continent, with 574 deaths and 1,405 recoveries. After originating in Wuhan, China last December, the virus has spread to at least 184 countries and regions, with its epicenter shifting to U.S. and Europe.

The virus has infected nearly 1.5 million people worldwide, while above 89,000 people have died, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. More than 337,000 people have recovered from the disease. The most common symptoms of the infection are dry cough, fever, and trouble breathing.

Kelechi Deca