WHO vaccine targets missed as third wave grips continent

MOST African nations are failing their people as the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic shows a rapid rise for the third week in a row, as targets set by the World Health Organization: World Health Assembly for the delivery of vaccines are not being met.

The new global targets were announced recently by the Assembly, the world’s highest health policysetting body, and at today’s pace only seven African countries are set to meet them, while 47 of Africa’s 54 countries – nearly 90% – are going to miss the September target of vaccinating 10% of their people unless the continent gets another 225 million doses.

According to the World Health Regional Office for Africa, the seven countries set to meet targets are Seychelles, Morocco, Mauritius, Equatorial Guinea, Comoros, Sao Tome & Principe, and Zimbabwe.

Six more countries (Tunisia, Ghana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Rwanda and Kenya) could reach the target if they get the supply needed to maintain their current average rate of uptake.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, said in a statement following a media briefing that as Africa nears 5 million Covid19 cases, numbers are rising weekon-week and increased by nearly 20% to over 88 000 in the week ending on June 6.

The pandemic is trending upward in 10 African countries, with four nations recording a spike in new cases of over 30% in the past seven days, compared with the previous week. And 72% of all new cases were reported in Egypt, South Africa,

Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia and over half were recorded in nine southern African countries.

“As we close in on 5 million cases and a third wave in Africa looms, many of our most vulnerable people remain dangerously exposed to Covid-19. Vaccines have been proven to prevent cases and deaths, so countries that can, must urgently share Covid-19 vaccines. It's do or die on dose sharing for Africa,” said Moeti.

At 32 million doses, Africa accounts for only under 1% of the over 2.1 billion doses administered globally. Just 2% of the continent’s nearly 1.3 billion people have received one dose and only 9.4 million Africans are fully vaccinated.

But US President Joe Biden’s planned announcement that the US will purchase and donate half a billion Pfizer vaccines to 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries and the AU is an important step forward. This comes as other countries such as France are also making tangible deliveries via Covax.

“The tide is starting to turn. We are now seeing wealthy nations beginning to turn promises into action,” said Moeti.

But while more vaccines are vital, some African countries must ramp up actions to swiftly roll out the vaccines they already have. Although 14 African countries have used between 80% to 100% of the doses they received through the Covax Facility, 20 countries have used less than 50% of the doses received. Twelve countries have more than 10% of their AstraZeneca doses at risk of expiring by the end of August.

“We need to ensure that the vaccines that we have are not wasted because every dose is precious,” said Dr Moeti. “Countries that are lagging behind in their roll-out need to step up vaccination efforts.”

Several African countries, including Ivory Coast and Niger are seeing more success by adjusting their vaccine roll-out strategies.

Where possible, WHO recommends spreading vaccinations beyond large cities into rural areas, prioritising vaccines that are close to expiring, tackling logistical and financial hurdles and working to boost public demand for vaccines.

Attitudes toward vaccines and acceptance of vaccination vary across countries and communities. According to the Risk Communication Community Engagement Collective, a joint WHO, UN’s Children’s Fund (Unicef) and International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) initiative, confidence in vaccines in Africa ranges from just 38% in Cameroon to 86% in Guinea. On average, west and central Africa has the lowest vaccine confidence at around 60%. To combat mis-anddisinformation around vaccines, WHO and partners set up the Africa Infodemic Response Alliance (AIRA), which leverages the reach and insights from a unique network of 14 organisations and pools resources to combat misinformation. Viral Facts Africa, the public face of the alliance, has created over 150 videos and social media posts to counter misinformation this year and they have been disseminated on almost 60 social media channels across the region and gained more than 100 million views.

Moeti spoke during a virtual press conference on Wednesday. She was joined by Pierre N’Gou Dimba, Ivory Coast Minister of Health, Public Hygiene and Universal Health Coverage, and Luchen Foster, Director of Health Partnerships, Facebook.