Africa still struggles in vaccinating their population

As shipments of COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out for billions of people who did not receive them last year, and new vaccines make their way into the market, dozens of countries in the African continent are still facing challenges in inoculating their populations.

There is a lack of immunization sites in Cameroon, weak communication and denials of Covid services in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a shortage of syringes in Kenya. Complacency and the perception that omicron is a less serious issue have slowed the vaccination campaign in Zimbabwe, which initially ran ahead of its African neighbors.

Having lacked vaccines for most of last year, Covax, an organization backed by the World Health Organization to address vaccination inequity, is now shipping around 1 billion doses. Despite the shift in focus to increase vaccination in poorer countries, officials worry the emergence of more vaccine-evading variants could result from the rapid spread of the omicron variant.

Following last year’s rush to buy supplies by wealthy nations, access to doses remains an issue, and omicron may exacerbate the problem, as governments expand booster programs. Vaccine production has been slowed by export restrictions and production delays, and some vaccine manufacturers have not honored contracts, a WHO group says.

Another significant concern is distribution. Developing countries are facing misinformation, inadequate funding, supply-chain challenges, and other obstacles. Although Covid cases and deaths have been highest in wealthier countries, fragile health systems in Africa and poor Covid data collection have been connected to communities that seem to indicate a much greater death toll than reported.

In recognition of the challenge, the WHO has given priority to 20 countries that are at high risk of failing to reach their goal of vaccinating 70 percent of their population this year. That’s a tall order considering Africa has so far had just 9.5% of its population vaccinated. Health officials from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are visiting Morocco and Rwanda to learn from their successful rollouts.

“We don’t have every dose we need, but we now have a real flow of doses, and what we’re beginning to see are demand constraints,” says Seth Berkley, head of the vaccine alliance, Gavi.