WHO: 83% of Africa’s Population Yet to Get Single Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine

Ndubuisi Francis

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared that 83 per cent of Africa’s population was yet to be administered with a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who stated this in a message at the ongoing three-day high-level PortsToArms Global Summit in Abuja, said the development was not only a moral failure, but also an epidemiological failure, which he said was creating the ideal conditions for new variants of the pandemic to emerge.

According to him, this week marked one year since COVAX made its first delivery in Africa, to Ghana precisely.

He regretted that unfortunately, vaccine nationalism and manufacturers prioritising high-income countries severely limited the number of vaccines COVAX was able to supply in the first half of last year.

The WHO chief stated: “As a result, 83 per cent of the population of Africa is yet to receive a single dose.

“This is not only a moral failure, it is also an epidemiological failure, which is creating the ideal conditions for new variants to emerge.

“Through COVAX, we are now overcoming many of the supply and delivery constraints we faced last year, with almost 1.2 billion doses of vaccine delivered, and the supply outlook for this year is positive.”

Through purchased and donated doses, Ghebreyesus noted that COVAX had secured enough vaccines to achieve 45 per cent coverage across recipient countries by the middle of 2022.

He stressed that other sources, including through WHO partner, Africa Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT), provided the means for countries to reach the global target of 70 per cent by mid-2022.

The WHO chief executive added: “We must now turn our attention to addressing the crucial question of how we turn vaccines into vaccinations – or how we get vaccines from ports to arms.

“Protecting the highest priority groups, including all health workers, older adults, and those with underlying medical conditions, must remain our urgent and immediate focus, to prevent severe disease, save lives, and safeguard essential health services.

“WHO and our ACT Accelerator partners are working night and day to address the bottlenecks that remain, in partnership with countries, AVAT, the Africa CDC, funders, manufacturers and civil society.

“We are on the ground, with you, to do whatever it takes to reach country goals not only on vaccines but for testing and treatment.”

He observed that steps had been taken to facilitate voluntary sharing of technology, intellectual property, know-how and data, including the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, or C-TAP, and the mRNA Technology Transfer Hub in South Africa, which has already developed its own mRNA vaccine candidate.

He recalled that just last week, WHO announced the first six African countries that would receive technology from the hub to produce their own vaccines, including Nigeria.

According to him, WHO has now identified 20 countries that have expressed interest in mRNA vaccine development training by the South African hub, adding, “Later today (Wednesday), we will also be announcing the establishment of a global bio-manufacturing training hub.”

“This second hub he disclosed, will provide countries working with the mRNA vaccine technology hub with the broader workforce training to turn novel technologies into large scale manufactured doses of vaccine and other products.

This whole process would be accelerated if manufacturers were willing to share their intellectual property and know-how with the hub,” he observed.

Expressing strong support for the proposal from South Africa and India for a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights under the TRIPS agreement for the duration of the pandemic, adding that the flexibilities in the TRIPS agreement are there to be used in emergencies.

“We need to pull out all the stops to achieve the 70 per cent vaccine coverage target by the middle of this year, as well as the minimum targets for testing, treatments and PPE coverage.

“Achieving the 70 per cent target in all countries is essential for ending the pandemic as a global health emergency and driving a truly inclusive global recovery.

“It will also help prevent the emergence of new variants, which could be more severe or transmissible next time around.

High level political leadership and accountability in elevating COVID-19 vaccination as a national and sub-national priority is an essential condition for success.”

Speaking at the summit, the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, noted that Nigeria initially diverted funds for routine immunisation to COVID-19 response, adding that the country has now addressed that for now. According to Ahmed, right now, funding is going towards delivery and rolling out to get vaccines into the arms of Nigerians.

The WHO Special Envoy for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator), Dr. Ayoade Alakija noted that COVID-19, the deadliest pandemic in modern times continues to ravage the globe, stressing that it has exposed chasms of inequality in health and education systems, socio-economic activities, vaccine manufacturing and political leadership.

Alakija observed that despite increased production and global distribution of vaccines, Africa was still in a crisis with poor and unequal access to vaccines.