As the severe third wave of Covid-19 in Africa subsides, six countries have “unfortunately now entered a fourth wave of infections”, said Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr John Nkengasong, at his weekly update on Thursday. Algeria, Benin, Kenya, Mauritius, Somalia and Tunisia are now battling the next surge of cases.
“This is a virus that is ahead of us,” he said. “We are not winning the battle in Africa, let us be very clear ... we need to vaccinate quickly.”
By Thursday, 7,97-million Covid-19 cases and 201,296 deaths had been reported in Africa.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organisation (WHO) regional director for Africa, said new cases in the third wave had declined on average by almost a quarter in the past week. The “downward slide” was driven mostly by countries in the north and south of the continent.
The 165,000 cases reported in the week to September are the steepest drop since the peak in July, but this number is still higher than new cases at the peak of the previous two waves, said Moeti.
Meanwhile, the average number of deaths reported has dropped in the past week by 13%, and consistently over the past month by 11%, said Nkengasong.
The Delta variant, which “sparked flare-ups”, has drawn out the third wave in Africa.
This variant was detected in more than 70% of samples sequenced from SA, Botswana, the DRC, Malawi and Mauritius, and more than 90% from Zimbabwe, said Moeti.
Nkengasong said greater surveillance of the spread of coronavirus and variants was central to controlling the pandemic.
We are not, as a continent, keen on vaccine diplomacy when pledges are not backed by reality. Pledges do not put vaccines into people’s arms.
— Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa
The SA National Bioinformatics Institute is getting support from the WHO to establish a regional Centre of Excellence for Genomic Surveillance and Bioinformatics in Cape Town.
To contain Covid-19, the heads of the WHO Afro and Africa CDC focused on the urgency of getting vaccines to the continent, specifically high-income countries fulfilling their commitments to deliver one billion doses.
To date, they have released only 120-million of these promised doses, said Moeti, calling on them to move forward.
The Africa CDC chief said: “We are not, as a continent, keen on vaccine diplomacy when pledges are not backed by reality. Pledges do not put vaccines into people’s arms.”
Nearly 77% of the available supply in African countries had gone into people’s arms by Thursday.
When vaccines first became available, Nkengasong warned that slow delivery of them to the continent would be catastrophic. “Today, look at where we are: in Africa, those fully vaccinated are 3%.”
Africa is short of 80-million doses to meet the global target of fully vaccinating the most vulnerable 10% of the population by September, said Dr Richard Mihigo, coordinator of the WHO Immunisation and Vaccines Development Programme.
Moeti said the 15-million doses that were ruined in the US would have been enough to vaccinate, for example, the countries of Liberia, Mauritania and Gambia, and she was saddened by this. “Every dose is precious and can save a life.”
A human error at the US firm that produces J&J vaccine ingredients spoilt the doses, affecting future shipments, according to recent news reports.
That was three times more doses than the five million delivered by Covax to Africa so far, she said.
Every month, 1,5-billion Covid-19 vaccine doses are produced globally, Moeti said. “If the producing countries and companies would prioritise vaccine equity, this pandemic could be over quickly.”
Africa has a window to prevent Covid-19 becoming entrenched as an endemic disease by vaccinating swiftly and at scale, but it is running out of time, warned Nkengasong.
“My call to action is that we are not going to win this war against the pandemic unless we act collectively ... to vaccinate everyone at speed. Otherwise, we must brace to live with this disease as endemic disease.”
People are lining up in many African countries to get vaccinated and the greatest challenge is the unpredictable supply of vaccines, Nkengasong said.
“The situation (in Africa) has changed a lot. There is a vast movement to getting immunised. There are pockets of resistance here and there, but overall people are moving in the right direction.” Places in the DRC, where infections are still rising, are among those pockets.
The Africa CDC reports that Central and East Africa had an average increase in new cases of 4% and 1% respectively in the past week, while new cases reported in the north dropped by 14%, in Southern Africa by 13% and in West Africa by 1%.
The slow pace of vaccinations and people’s fatigue with restrictive measures remain a risk for driving up the next wave of infections and deaths.
Vaccinations prevent more than 90% of deaths and reduce the risk of transmission by about 40%, but they do not stop breakthrough infections.
Encouraging Africans to adopt a “moral social contract” to get vaccinated and protect themselves and their communities, Nkengasong said: “We are only going to win this battle against Covid-19 if we deploy the whole of society. The fight against pandemics has always been won (when) people work together.”
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