African Countries have destroyed nearly half a million expired COVID-19 vaccine doses since the continent started rolling out inoculations in March.
Dr. Richard Mihigo of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday, July 15, 2021 that the situation is “deplorable”. Mihigo stated that Countries in Africa are administering vaccines more rapidly now, but the continent needs to increase its pace of vaccination by three to five times.
The decision by India’s Serum Institute to delay overseas shipments of the AstraZeneca vaccine in order to focus on the domestic COVID-19 crisis has left many Countries scrambling. In some cases, vaccine shipments have arrived with limited remaining shelf life, sometimes expiring before they can be deployed, Sara Jerving reports from Nairobi.
In March, the World Bank found big gaps in Countries’ readiness to roll out comprehensive COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, and challenges around planning and funding have also slowed vaccination.
Fifty-two million people in Africa have been vaccinated since the start of the rollout in March. Of those, only 18 million are fully vaccinated, according to WHO, representing just 1.5% of the continent’s population.
Meanwhile, some African countries, including Namibia, are expected to benefit from Germany’s just-announced donation of 30 million COVID-19 vaccines, 80% of which will be dispensed through COVAX. Still, German authorities say they aren’t budging on relaxing intellectual property rights to the vaccines.
