African countries have used up nearly 60% of their Covid-19 vaccines by delivering 22,4 million jabs into arms, said Africa CDC chief Dr John Nkengasong on Thursday.
A single dose has been delivered to 1,48% of the continent’s population and 0,4% are fully covered.
New cases of Covid-19 have declined by 6% on average during the past month and the number of infections stands at 4,6 million, he said at his weekly update.
To date, 125,000 people have died of Covid-19 and the continent accounts for 4% of deaths worldwide. Twenty-one countries have an average death rate higher than the global average of 2.1%.
Vaccinations will lower the rate of deaths, said Nkengasong, conducting his briefing from Rwanda, which has a 100% successful track record in using up its vaccine supply.
“Rwanda, where I am, is a truly remarkable success story. They got 290,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and immunised people (using up) all of them. They got 102,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in March and used them.”
But SA’s vaccine coverage is at only 0,7% of its population, below that of 26 other African countries, according to the Statista website.
If we vaccinate at scale and speed we will limit the emergence of these variants.
— Africa CDC chief Dr John Nkengasong
Neighbouring Zimbabwe, Botswana and Eswatini are among a dozen countries with a coverage above 2%, it says.
The need for enhanced prevention, including vaccinations, was one of the three pillars of an “adapted strategy” that was endorsed by health ministers at a “high-level emergency meeting” at the weekend.
Opening the meeting, World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO has consistently called for national, regional and global solidarity since the pandemic began.
“And that is exactly what the AU has demonstrated. Africa is the only region to have developed a unified continental strategy on Covid-19. And that strategy has delivered results,” he said.
“Though our continent has suffered, we have not yet seen the same scale of devastation in Africa as we have in some other regions.”
But the WHO chief warned against complacency: “What is happening now in many other parts of the world can happen in our Africa if we let down our guard.
“In many countries the emergence of rapidly spreading variants, combined with premature easing of public health and social measures, and the inequitable distribution of vaccines, is having tragic consequences, as we all know,” said Ghebreyesus.
Africa is the only region to have developed a unified continental strategy on Covid-19. And that strategy has delivered results.
— World Health Organisation director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
The latest action plan, updating the 2020 joint strategy, aims to enhance the three pillars of prevention, monitoring and treatment.
“When we issued joint continental strategy we didn’t have issues of variants ... We didn’t have the vaccines we now have,” said Nkengasong.
The number of countries with the B.1.617 variant, originating from India, has doubled recently to include Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and SA, in addition to Kenya, Morocco and Uganda.
The B.1.351 variant, first identified in SA, and the B.1.17 variant, found in the UK, have been reported in 24 countries.
Nkengasong, responding to a query about using scarce vaccines on teenagers in the US, said Africa critically needed access to vaccines now to slow the seeding of the virus in the population.
“If we vaccinate at scale and speed we will limit the emergence of these variants and this will be a win for everybody,” he said.
The continental health body will support countries in implementing the adapted strategy, including in its surveillance for mutations. “Please work with us as closely as possible,” Nkengasong urged.
“All countries should be prepared with treatment and medications, as well as the availability of oxygen so that when, and if, a (third wave) hits on the scale we are seeing in India, the continent is better prepared,” he said.
The Africa CDC chief said the enhanced treatment pillar would focus on basics such as the availability of oxygen.
Dr Faisal Shuaib, CEO of a Nigerian public health agency, reported that Nigeria was working hard to expand its capacity to produce oxygen, even though new cases of the virus were currently plateauing.
“We are not at a point where we have large numbers of Covid-19 cases, but what we are already doing is preparing for a potential third wave.
“We are taking lessons from what has happened in India. We know that if the right non-pharmaceutical measures are not followed, especially after celebrations such as Eid and political engagements, that we may actually have an increase in the number of cases.”
Nigeria is ramping up its capacity to produce oxygen by establishing plants in every state, and up to three or four in states such as Lagos which have been hard hit by the pandemic.
“We know that many countries across the continent are also beginning to prepare ... shortages of oxygen can happen in any country,” Shuaib said.
During the past four weeks Covid-19 trends in the regions show:
- 42% increase in the Central region
- 14% increase in the Southern region
- 5% decrease in the Northern region
- 11% decrease in the Western region
- 18% decrease in the Eastern region
Nkengasong ended by wishing people celebrating Eid Mubarak and appealing to them “to do this safely in the middle of the pandemic and deny the virus the opportunity to spread”.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.