Why many African countries may not achieve the 2022 COVID-19 vaccination coverage target (original) (raw)
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Addressing challenges to rolling out COVID-19 vaccines in African countries
The Lancet Global Health, 2021
Addressing challenges to rolling out COVID-19 vaccines in African countries There is much ongoing debate and concern regarding access to COVID-19 vaccines and roll-out gaps in low-income and middle-income countries compared with high-income countries. African countries, many of which are low-income, also face issues with reciprocation after vaccine trials are done among their populations and the need to devolve vaccine manufacturing locally. Additional concerns include access to laboratory facilities for SARS-CoV-2 testing and scaling up testing and sequencing for detection of local SARS-CoV-2 variants. In this context, countries must scale up research on vaccine effectiveness, prioritise funding for and access to efficacious vaccines, strengthen high-quality and large-capacity storage infrastructure, maintain efficient cold chain, ensure effective pharmacovigilance, and address vaccine hesitancy while identifying priority populations for vaccination. Effective health communication and intensive community engagement are needed to convey accurate information and facilitate optimal vaccine uptake, issues which much be addressed quickly by national governments with support from partners such as WHO and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. 1,2 The second wave of the pandemic in Africa has spread more rapidly than the first wave and affected younger and healthier populations. The emergence of highly transmissible variants calls for mass immunisation with COVID-19 vaccines. Africa is unique in having large young and mobile populations, a large informal job sector, and hotspots of political instability and insecurity, all of which will pose substantial challenges to vaccine roll-out strategies. The African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team of the African Union and the WHO-led COVAX consortium with its global partners are striving to secure 720 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to achieve 60% coverage in Africa by June, 2022. This initiative presents opportunities for further international cooperation towards enhancing equitable roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines in disadvantaged countries. 3 As of March 4, 2021, 11 countries across Africa have initiated vaccination programmes. Among them, Ghana, Nigeria,
Epidemiology and Infection
In October 2021, the WHO published an ambitious strategy to ensure that all countries had vaccinated 40% of their population by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-2022. The end of June 2022 marks 18 months of implementation of COVID-19 vaccination in the African region and provides an opportunity to look back and think ahead about COVID-19 vaccine set targets, demand, and delivery strategies. As of 26 June 2022 two countries in the WHO African region have achieved this target (Mauritius and Seychelles) and seven are on track, having vaccinated between 40% and 69% of their population. By the 26 June 2022, seven among the 20 countries that had less than 10% of people fully vaccinated at the end of January 2022, have surpassed 15% of people fully vaccinated at the end of June 2022. This includes five targeted countries, which are being supported by the WHO Regional Office for Africa through the Multi-Partners' Country Support Team Initiative. As we enter the second semester of 2022, a window of opportunity has opened to provide new impetus to COVID-19 vaccination rollout in the African region guided by the four principles: Scale-up, Transition, Consolidation, and Communication. Member States need to build on progress made to ensure that this impetus is not lost and that the African region does not remain the least vaccinated global region, as economies open up and world priorities change.
Low coverage of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa: current evidence and the way forward
Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 2022
ABSTRACT Disparities in COVID-19 vaccine coverage across the globe have uncovered inequities in global healthcare. While more than half of the population of the developed countries have been fully vaccinated, only a small percentage of the African population has received one vaccine dose so far, a far cry from the global vaccination targets. Furthermore, several low and middle income (LMICs) African countries lack the competence, infrastructure, logistics, and financial resources to mass-vaccinate their populations. his paper highlights the causes and implications of the low COVID-19 vaccine coverage on Africa and the global community, and discusses strategies for restructuring and strengthening COVID-19 vaccination in Africa.
COVID-19: Vaccine Hesitancy in Africa and the Way Forward
Problemy Ekorozwoju
COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm in late 2019, scientists and health authorities across the globe struggle to contain the deadly virus. Socio-economic activities across the globe were partly halted as countries around the world introduce various forms of restrictions to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Most developing countries’ economies, especially in Africa, slid into recession, unemployment among Africa countries skyrocketed to an all-time high, and famine and starvation were beginning to knock harder on poorer nations around the world. The race to develop a vaccine was pressing harder; developed countries continue to pump more money to help develop a vaccine within the shortest period of time, as that seems the only viable solution to the economic downturn of the global world. Finally, vaccines were developed and proved to have high efficacy. This has helped reverse the negative trend of the global economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This vaccine faced a ...
COVID-19 vaccination in Africa: A case of unsatisfied expectation and ill-preparedness
Vaccine: X, 2022
With a population of 1.3 billion people, of which 56% reside in rural settings, Africa seemed ill-prepared to handle the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, the capacity needed for a successful COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Africa surpassed the available resources in local and state health agencies. As a result, African governments were advised to coordinate resources, health officials, and vaccinators, including local health practitioners, medical technicians, and pharmacists for the largest-ever vaccination campaign in Africa. Although the rolling out of the SARS-COV-2 vaccine was, as expected, slow in many African countries, and not yet enough to cover the entire population in Africa, the mass vaccination campaign in Africa must continue to ensure that priority for vaccination is extended beyond front-liners (healthcare workers) and specific high-risk populations, which has largely been the case in some African countries. This article highlights the overarching areas that we believe need to be prioritized to enhance Africa's effectiveness and coverage in the mass COVID-19 vaccination program.
COVID-19 vaccinology landscape in Africa
Frontiers in Immunology
More than two years after the start of COVID-19 pandemic, Africa still lags behind in terms vaccine distribution. This highlights the predicament of Africa in terms of vaccine development, deployment, and sustainability, not only for COVID-19, but for other major infectious diseases that plague the continent. This opinion discusses the challenges Africa faces in its race to vaccinate its people, and offers recommendations on the way forward. Specifically, to get out of the ongoing vaccine shortage trap, Africa needs to diversify investment not only to COVID-19 but also other diseases that burden the population. The continent needs to increase its capacity to acquire vaccines more equitably, improve access to technologies to enable local manufacture of vaccines, increase awareness on vaccines both in rural and urban areas to significantly reduce disease incidence of COVID-19 and as well as other prevalent diseases on the African continent such as HIV and TB. Such efforts will go a lo...
Iberoamerican Journal of Medicine
Introduction: SARS-CoV-2 continues to raise health and socio-economical concerns globally. The recent discovery of the B.1.1.529 (Omicron) variant with its critical mutations has heightened the debate about the need for a better global vaccination rollout to prevent the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 strains. Optimizing vaccine rollout in Africa is crucial for the management of the pandemic and preventing the rise of new strains. To better direct efforts and interventions it is important to know what parts of the continent necessitate more attention. Material and Methods: 30 African countries were grouped in five geographical subregions, six countries for each subregion. Data on confirmed cases, doses administered, fully vaccinated, and deaths were extracted from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center database. The ANOVA test evaluated differences in means for these variables classified by subregions. The correlation test and the linear regression examined the relationship betwe...
BMJ Global Health, 2021
The African Union Bureau of Heads of State and Government endorsed the COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Access Strategy to vaccinate at least 60% of each country’s population with a safe and efficacious vaccine by 2022, to achieve the population-level immunity needed to bring the pandemic under control. Using publicly available, country-level population estimates and COVID-19 vaccination data, we provide unique insights into the uptake trends of COVID-19 vaccinations in the 15 countries that comprise the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS). Based on the vaccination rates in the ECOWAS region after three months of commencing COVID-19 vaccinations, we provide a projection of the trajectory and speed of vaccination needed to achieve a COVID-19 vaccination coverage rate of at least 60% of the total ECOWAS population. After three months of the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines across the ECOWAS countries, only 0.27% of the region’s total population had been fully vaccinated. ...
Africa's preparedness towards COVID-19 vaccines: Demand and acceptability challenges
Current Research in Behavioral Sciences, 2021
To date, the response to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in many African countries has been quick, forwardlooking and adjustable in spite of the continent's limited resources. These responses were triggered by the continuous increase in cases and deaths, which have necessitated speedy development of an effective vaccine. It is anticipated that African governments and public health officials will show more transparency, and provide evidence-based strategies to support COVID-19 vaccines and design equitable as well as effective vaccine delivery plans for the populace. To this end, this review analysed Africa's preparedness and response towards COVID-19 vaccines, potential demand, acceptability and distribution challenges related to the management of the virus. The review takes stock of context-specific vaccine preparedness; the demand for vaccine and associated challenges; as well as vaccine accessibility and its distribution. The review offers insightful approaches and strategies by which African countries can maximize benefits from the COVID-19 vaccines to overcome the virus. These include the pursuance of vaccines that may help confer immunity or protection against the virus in the light of contextual circumstances of specific African countries, including sociocultural and economic issues among other factors.