Africa-Press – Ghana. African nations have been urged to scale up the vaccination campaigns for the continent to win the fight against Covid-19 and also fight off new variants.
Speaking during the third edition of the Kusi Ideas festival currently ongoing in Accra, Ghana, Dr Sylvia Vito, the SAFRICA HEAD – Acceleration South Africa, Sub Sahara Africa, French Africa at AstraZeneca said that as much the African governments have done better in vaccinating their populations, there is still room to push for more people to be vaccinated.
“We have to recognise the efforts done by governments. It’s been tough and the challenges we have faced a year later have exposed the vulnerability of the continent as unable to control its own destiny. We can still do better,” Dr Vito said.
AstraZeneca has managed to offer two thirds of vaccines to third world countries, with 45 million doses distributed to Africa. The rest of the Mehta vaccines include those from Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and others.
“We started out well, but with the Indian ban on vaccine exports, the vaccination campaign not just in Africa but the rest of the developing world slowed down. However, in the last two months, we have delivered 17.5 million vaccines across Africa,” she said.
According to Africa CDC, under 10 per cent of the continent’s population has been fully vaccinated, against a target of 40 per cent as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation. The low vaccination numbers have been attributed to vaccine access that disfavor the continent coupled with apathy driven by myths and fears.
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