WHO: Africa’s already-thin vaccine supply to drop by 25 per cent

NAIROBI (AP):

Africa’s already-thin supply of COVID-19 vaccines has taken another significant hit, with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Africa director saying on Thursday that for various reasons, including the roll-out of booster shots, “We will get 25 per cent less doses than we were anticipating by the end of the year.”

Matshidiso Moeti’s comments to reporters came as the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said just over three per cent of people across the African continent have been fully vaccinated. That coverage drops to around 1.7 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the WHO.

African health officials are dismayed by Wednesday’s announcement that the global COVAX effort to distribute vaccines to low- and middle-income countries is again cutting its delivery forecast. That revision, Moeti told reporters, is “in part because of the prioritisation of bilateral deals over international solidarity”.

The COVAX challenges, along with export controls on vaccine doses and the introduction of booster shots by some countries, “really means, at the end, there has to be a calculation, a projection that we will get 25 per cent less doses than we were anticipating before the end of the year,” she said.

Moeti noted that while COVAX has delivered over five million vaccine doses to African countries in the past week, “three times as many doses have been thrown away in the United States alone” since March.

“Every dose is precious,” Moeti said, adding that high-income countries have pledged to share one billion doses globally, but so far only 120 million have been released. “If companies and countries prioritise vaccine equity, this pandemic would be over quickly.” The WHO said the target of vaccinating 10 per cent of people in Africa by the end of this month is being missed. The goal is to vaccinate 40 per cent by the end of the year.