AFP :
Africa faces a 470 million shortfall in Covid-19 vaccine doses this year after the Covax alliance cut
its projected shipments, raising the risk of new and deadly variants, the WHO said on Thursday.
Only 17 percent of the continent’s population will now be vaccinated by the of this year, compared with the 40 percent target set by the World Health Organization, the global agency’s Africa unit said at its weekly briefing in the Congolese capita of Brazzaville.
“The staggering inequity and severe lag in shipments of vaccines threatens turn areas in Africa … into breeding grounds for vaccine-resistant variants,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s Africa director. “This could end up sending the whole world back to square one.”
Due to global shortages, the Covax alliance set up to ensure equitable delivery of jabs, will ship about 150 million fewer doses of vaccine toAfrica than planned.
Taking into account this shortfall, the 470 million doses of vaccine now expected in Africa will allow only 17 percent of the population to be fully protected, the WHO’s regional office said.
