Africa facing COVID vaccine famine, not vaccine hesitancy: Top health official

By Seleshi Tessema

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AA) - Despite an increase in COVID-19 vaccinations, Africa faces inoculation challenges due to unpredictable access to jabs, the head of Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Thursday.

In a weekly press briefing, John Nkengasong said the continent has so far received 130 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, out of which 93 million have been administered in 53 member states.

Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt are countries progressing well in their vaccination drives, he said, adding that vaccine hesitancy is not a problem in Africa. ‘’The problem in Africa is vaccine famine, not vaccine hesitancy as I tweeted earlier."

He said the continent does not know when and from where vaccines would come. "The big challenge is predictability in vaccine access," he said. "How do you plan if you do not anticipate the vaccines you receive? Success hinges on planning."

Most African countries initially got their vaccines under COVAX, a WHO-led global vaccine sharing scheme, which were largely sourced from the Serum Institute of India. But India halted vaccine exports in response to its own urgent needs.

Meanwhile, some rich countries secured enough doses to vaccinate their own populations several times over.

Tedros Gebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, has called for a moratorium on COVID-19 vaccine boosters until “at least the end of September” to enable the world’s most vulnerable people to be inoculated.

The Africa CDC chief said receiving different types of vaccines with different life span and instructions is another problem.

Sharing virus figures, Nkengasong said that between Aug. 16 and 22, 239,000 new infections were registered in Africa. "The new infections are coming from Southern Africa (46%), North Africa (37 %), East Africa (9%) Western Africa (7%), and Central Africa(1%),’’ he said.

In total, he continued, 7.6 million Africans have contracted COVID-19, and about 191,000 have died.