As UK begins mass vaccination and other Western nations prepare for inoculations against COVID-19, Africa's top public health official asks when they will be vaccinated
Undertakers push a casket containing the remains of a COVID patient during a funeral at a cemetery in Soweto, South Africa. File Pic/AFP
"It will be extremely terrible to see" rich countries receiving COVID-19 vaccines while African countries go without, especially as a new surge in cases begins on the continent of 1.3 billion people, Africa’s top public health official said on Thursday. As the world watches mass vaccinations begin in Britain, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention director John Nkengasong has warned that Africa might not see vaccines until after the second quarter of 2021.
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Nkengasong called it a "moral issue" and urged the United Nations to summon a special session to discuss the ethical, fair distribution of vaccines to avoid "this North-South distrust in respect to vaccines, which is a common good."
COVID-19 will not be defeated in the West alone, he said, and he took aim at "today’s dialogue of suspicion" as rich nations buy vaccines "in excess of their needs while we in Africa are still struggling with the COVAX facility," the multinational initiative designed to deliver at least some vaccines to less developed countries.
Africa won’t receive nearly enough vaccines from COVAX to reach the goal of vaccinating 60% of the population to achieve herd immunity, Nkengasong said, and he appealed to nations with excess doses to give them to COVAX or countries in need. Africa’s 54 countries now have a total of more than 2.3 million confirmed infections, including 1,00,000 in the past week.
South Africa is seeing a dramatic rise in cases and bracing for increased hospitalisations and deaths, said the country’s health minister Zweli Mkhize. "It is important for us to recognise that this now is a second wave," said Mkhize in a statement.
3,85,477
Total no. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours
6,81,65,877
Total no. of cases worldwide
15,72,423
Total no. of deaths worldwide
Source: WHO/Johns Hopkins
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