Covid-19 vaccine rollout: How Africa is faring

Cape Town: As the world shifts its focus to the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in efforts to end the pandemic, it has become evident that the most developed countries across the world have reached advanced phases of their rollout plans while many others have not.

Africa remains in their early stages of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout due to various challenges, mainly due to the shortage of vaccine shots.

The Conversation reported that African countries trying to overcome the vaccine shortfall resorted to sourcing them through:

• The Covax facility which is a global initiative aiming to provide equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines which is led by multiple global health organisations such as the World Health Organization, Gavi, the vaccine alliance and the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness.
• The Covid-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team which was established by the AU.
• Bilateral agreements with vaccine manufacturers.
• Donations from other countries.

Nicaise Ndembi, the senior science adviser for the Africa CDC, said the continent would need around 1.5 billion vaccine doses to be able to follow a double-shot regime.

It would cost between $10 billion (about R145bn) and $15bn to vaccinate 60% of the African population. The amount would cover the purchase price and vaccine rollout programmes across the continent, according to the Africa CDC.

Fortunately, the Covax Facility aims to provide at least 2 billion doses of the Covid vaccine by the end of the year, with 92 lower-income economies provided with 1.3 billion vaccine doses.

Take a look below at the progress the African continent has made: