AFRICA – The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has announced that the number of confirmed COVID -19 cases in Africa has reached 11,343,461.
The specialized health agency of the African Union said that the death toll across the continent stands at 251,297 and some 10,697,502 patients have recovered from COVID-19 so far as on 3rd April 2022.
“South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are among the countries with the most Covid-19 cases on the continent,” reports the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The agency further detailed that South Africa has recorded the most COVID-19 cases in Africa with 3,722,065 cases followed by Morocco with 1,163,012 cases as of 3rd April 2022.
Safe and effective vaccines are the best tool to end the pandemic thus African countries have ramped up vaccination campaigns to protect individuals against the adverse impacts of COVID-19.
Equitable access to safe and effective vaccines is also critical in preventing new variants from emerging and threatening not only Africa but the world
Africa CDC has urged African countries to use a combination of public health measures, vaccines, testing as well as the Pfizer and Merck treatments in their efforts to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022.
COVAX, African Union decline more Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative and the African Union have declined options to buy additional doses of Moderna’s vaccine since developing nations are struggling to allocate supplies.
COVAX aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.
However, the African Union reports that as COVID-19 vaccines supply and donations have ramped up, some poorer nations are facing hurdles such as gaps in cold-chain shortage, vaccine hesitancy and a lack of funds to support distribution networks.
The Moderna biotechnology Company asserts that the global alliance did not exercise the option for 166 million doses of the shot for the third quarter of 2022 as well as for 166 million doses in the fourth quarter which expired on April 1st 2022.
Moderna and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance have agreements for up to 650 million doses of the company’s vaccine to be made available to COVAX participants between 2021 and 2022 but COVAX is currently struggling to place more than 300 million doses.
Despite struggling to acquire vaccines in 2022, the COVAX initiative backed by Gavi, the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations has picked up pace of supplies and delivered about 1.40 billion doses to 144 countries as of April 1st April 2022.
The World Health Organization, GAVI and partners have supported mass vaccination drives in at least 10 priority countries to reach 100 million people by the end of April 2022 boosting the COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Africa.
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