Covid vaccinations in Africa have shot up since the beginning of June, yet only a fifth of its population is fully vaccinated — compared with the global average of 61%.
Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, acting director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Thursday that the rollout of ongoing mass Covid vaccination campaigns in countries was increasing the demand for the jabs.
Ouma urged Africans to get vaccinated against serious illness, noting the pandemic was still on and the number of new cases was “inching up again”. Nearly 12-million cases of Covid and 254,807 deaths have been reported on the continent.
Dr Edem Adzogenu, innovation adviser to the AU, also spoke at the briefing about Africa’s new “vaccine passport”, a digital Covid vaccination certificate, which will aid free trade on the continent and facilitate global travel for fully vaccinated Africans.
“The biggest advantage is that it offers free movement on the continent and the world,” he said.
The QR code of this “tamper-proof” vaccine passport, launched on July 8, will work similarly to the EU’s green Covid-19 vaccine passport. Airlines, the EU, Australia, Singapore and international aviation authorities have expressed support for or verified it, said Adzogenu.
Asked about SA, he said it was not among the 21 countries which have integrated into the system, or the nine countries in the pipeline to integrate, but Adzoneyu said he hoped SA would join.
“The likes of SA, Nigeria, Morocco, we really want them to get on board, and we want to thank the pioneering countries such as Kenya and Ghana.”
The consumption of available Covid vaccine doses on the continent is at 72%. The most used vaccines in Africa to date have been J&J (27%), Pfizer (23%), AstraZeneca (19%) and Sinopharm (18%),
This year the rate of first-round vaccination has soared in many countries, including in Ethiopia where it rosefrom 3.5% to 33% and Tanzania where it went up from 1% to 16%, according to the World Health Organisation, African region.
Ouma warned, however, that the coronavirus is only one of the public health threats the continent faces. “Monkeypox and other outbreaks are coming out of the context of weakened health systems from the Covid pandemic,” he said.
Wild polio (reported in Malawi and Mozambique), the Marburg virus, monkeypox, Lassa fever — SA is reporting cases — haemorrhagic fever, yellow and dengue fever, and leptospirosis were among the “other diseases pressing on the continent”.
More than 2,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 10 countries, most of which are suspected cases based on the clinical symptoms and are managed as such. The Africa CDC has been supporting countries with training and reagents to test in the lab for the virus.
Monkeypox and other outbreaks are coming of the context of weakened health systems.
— Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, Africa CDC acting director
“At the moment there are not sufficient test kits ... and no new therapies,” said Ouma. Asked about monkeypox vaccine availability, he said: “There is none on the continent and no (countries are) offering to share stockpiles at this time.”
The spreading of “bacterial meningitis in the DRC, cholera in at least 10 member states and measles” were additional concerns, he said. “These are old diseases over which we should have better control, but the challenges of Covid-19 have not been easy.”
North Africa is driving the rise in Covid infections, accounting for 78% of new cases reported on average over the past four weeks and the region has been hit by a 68% average increase in new deaths.
New cases have increased overall on the continent by 9% over the past four weeks, and new deaths by 6% on average.
Southern Africa is the only region where both new cases and new deaths have dropped on average, in contrast to late May when cases were going up.
“Testing really needs to increase,” said Ouma, concerned about insufficient Covid testing. The variants reported on the continent were unchanged in the month of July, he said.
The launch of the vaccine passport will not only facilitate travel but also support collection of data across the continent, said Adzogenu.
“The advantage is not just for Covid but for other diseases, so we never find ourselves in a situation where the region is forced to shut down again.”
Ouma expressed the Africa CDC’s support for the vaccine passport, concluding it was “a very, very important tool which is not only Africa developed but also Africa run and trailblazing globally.”
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