'Only 86.6M COVID-19 vaccines administered in Africa'

By Addis Getachew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AA) – Africa has only managed to receive a meager supply of 123.4 million doses of COVID-19, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an update.

Of the total amount supplied, 86.6 million has so far been administered in a continent of more than 1.3 billion people that suffered from “disgraceful vaccine inequity,” the Africa CDC Director Dr. John Nkengasong said.

Morocco accounts for over 32 million jabs supplied and 29.3 million administered, while South Africa sees 14.4 million supplied and over 1 million administered.

Only 1.85% of the population has so far been fully vaccinated that the continent either solicited through the COVAX facility, a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, or under the African Vaccine Acquisition Technical Team in addition to the jabs countries received bilaterally.

The continent has so far recorded over 7.38 million cases, 186,367 deaths, and more than 6.5 million recoveries, the Africa CDC figures showed.

Along with the Alpha and Beta strains of the coronavirus, the most contagious Delta variant was causing an aggressive third wave across Africa, with case numbers climbing faster than all earlier peaks, according to the World Health Organization.