Officials at the World Health Organization announced that African countries will be able dramatically accelerate their vaccination programs as the system for distributing Covid vaccines has been changed.
The W.H.O. used to send vaccine doses to African countries. The W.H.O. would deliver vaccine doses to African countries when they became available. Since January, countries can request the vaccines that they need from W.H.O. Directly, in what quantities and when. They were able to significantly increase their vaccination efforts.
The continent as a whole had been expected to reach the target of vaccinating 70 percent of the population by August 2024, said Phionah Atuhebwe of the W.H.O.’s Africa office. However, she stated that the target could be reached by early 2023. Some African countries like Kenya, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast have increased the speed at which they are vaccinating populations in a short time.
“Things are going to change,” Dr. Atuhebwe said.
400 million doses have already been administered in the year since Africa received its first vaccines through Covax. This global effort to distribute vaccines equitably is partially led by the W.H.O. This is the largest single-year vaccine rollout in Africa.
But Africa’s vaccination rate still lags far behind the rest of the world: only about 16 percent of people in Africa have received at least one dose, compared to well over 50 percent in every other continent.
As vaccine supplies have increased, efforts to get the doses into people’s arms have intensified. The overall program has been hampered due to difficulties in storing and delivering vaccines to towns and villages. Misinformation, vaccine hesitancy, and indifference to people with higher priorities have all been problems. Some countries report that their supplies are no longer available for administration.
Dr. John Nkengasong of Africa Centers for Disease Control suggested on Tuesday that sometimes it might be necessary to suspend vaccine donations in order to prevent unnecessary doses. “Let’s pause and avoid the risk of sending so much that it gets expired,” Dr. Nkengasong said in an interview with the news outlet Politico.
Later, he clarified that his call for a total halt in donations was not for him but for a coordinated approach that ensured vaccines arrived at their intended time.
Dr. Atuhebwe explained that the changing trends meant vaccine donations from around-the-world were still needed.
“If we use the 2021 trends, it would just not be realistic,” she said. “We’re accelerating the scale up, meaning we need many more doses.”
Lynsey Chutetel contributed reporting from Johannesburg.
Source: NY Times
