"Early next year Covid-19 vaccines will start pouring into Africa, but a scarcity of syringes could paralyse progress. Drastic measures must be taken to boost syringe production, fast," said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Africa's director.
So far, the continent has fully vaccinated 77-million people, just 6% of its population.
About 50-million Covid-19 vaccine doses have arrived on the continent this month, almost double September's arrivals, WHO Africa said.
"However, at the current pace, Africa still faces a 275-million shortfall of Covid-19 vaccines against the year-end target of fully vaccinating 40% of its people," it said.
As of Thursday, Africa had close 8.5-million confirmed Covid-19 cases and more than 217,000 deaths, WHO Africa said.
Reuters