The Africa Region of the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 47 of their 54 countries will fail to meet the most minimal of COVID-19 vaccination levels — 10% of the population by the end of September. The original plan was to vaccinate 20% — the health workers, the elderly and the health-compromised — by June 30, but that plan was pushed back recently, at the World Health Assembly, to half of that by Sept. 30. Only 32 million doses have been applied of the 500 million dose plan. To get to half of that, 218 million more doses are needed.
For the last four weeks, official new cases have been on the rise, representing the beginning of a third wave in Africa. Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia have a bulk (72%) of the new cases. Zambia more than doubled their daily new cases last week, going from 700 to 1,600. South Africa has had the most cases and the most deaths (57,000), and only 183,000 jabs for 58.5 million people. (That’s proportional to about 1 million jabs for Americans rather than the 300 million-plus actual). When COVID took off in India in the second week of April, South Africa had about 800 official new cases/day. In the last two weeks, up through yesterday, the 7-day average has gone from 3,400 to 7,200 per day. Neighboring Lesotho, which has been averaging about 1-3 new cases/day for over 3 months, jumped from June 12 to June 13 from 6 to 72 new cases.
WHO’s Africa Regional Director Dr. Matshidiso Moeti summed up: “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.”
