Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s government is “unlikely” to achieve its declared goal of vaccinating 17 million people against Covid-19 by the end of this year, even as the pandemic expands in the country’s northern provinces, NKC African Economics, an economics consultancy firm, said in an analysis note.
Despite more than 1.2 million Mozambicans having received doses during the last month, “it seems unlikely that the government will be able to meet the goal of immunising 17 million citizens by the end of the year,” reads the note, written by analysts at the firm, the Africa branch of UK consultancy Oxford Economics.
In a commentary on the evolution of the pandemic in Mozambique, sent to clients and which Lusa has seen, the analysts write that infrastructure difficulties in rural areas and the conflict in Cabo Delgado province, which has seen a sharp increase in the number of coronvirus cases, would be a “challenge” for the country’s health authorities.
At the end of August there were 11,803 active cases in the country, down 63% decrease from a month earlier, the analysts acknowledge, while stressing that in recent weeks there has been an increase in confirmed infections in the northern provinces of Zambezia, Nampula, Niassa and Cabo Delgado.
At the end of last month fewer than 4% of the country’s people had been vaccinated, despite a sharp increase in deliveries of Covid-19 vaccine and the launch of a comprehensive vaccination programme in early August, NKC African Economics notes.
