Despite the vaccine supply shortage, the current Covid-19 outbreak in Africa is proving to be the most devastating on the continent, according to the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa and the Africa CDC.
John Nkengasong, the Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), stated last week on Thursday that Africa was losing the coronavirus battle and voiced concern that the virus could become “endemic” in sections of the continent.
According to WHO, Africa is seeing a rapidly growing third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, with cases spreading more quickly and expected to shortly surpass the peak of the second wave that hit the continent at the beginning of the year.
“Timely access to vaccines to vaccinate at scale and with speed is crucial if we’re to win this battle,” said Dr Nkengasong.
This happens as it became clear that the WHO-backed Covax was on the verge of being disbanded due to its failure to fulfill its purpose of procuring vaccinations for Africa.
Dr. Nkengasong advised that if vaccines are not available quickly, the virus will spread to rural areas, making it extremely difficult to contain, “because that will become the beginning of the pandemic’s endemicity, and we will then move from thinking of how to manage it in terms of an endemic disease like malaria, HIV, and others.”