WHO: Africa’s rising Covid-19 cases coupled with vaccine woes ‘especially concerning’ | Fin24

Citizens queue at eSangweni Clinic vaccination site on June 02, 2021 in Tembisa (Gallo Images/Fani Mahuntsi)

Rising Covid-19 cases in Africa are “especially concerning” because the continent has the least amount of access to vaccines, diagnostics and oxygen, said World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Together with the spread of more transmissible variants this increases the continent’s mortality rate among critically ill Covid-19 patients, he told reporters in a briefing Monday.

“Right now the virus is moving faster than the global distribution of vaccines,” he said. Public health and social measures may need to be “more stringent and applied for longer” in areas where vaccination rates remain low, he said.

Only 2.8% of Africa’s population is inoculated, compared with a global average of 14.5%.

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