WHO warns Africa might not reach COVID-19 vaccination goal until late 2024

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that Africa may not reach the goal of getting 70 percent COVID-19 vaccination coverage until late 2024 — two years after the planned target. 

If vaccinations continue at the current pace, a WHO assessment predicts that it will take until May 2022 to get 40 percent of the continent’s population vaccinated and until August 2024 to hit the desired 70 percent vaccination threshold. 

Twenty African countries have reached 10 percent vaccination coverage, and six countries have obtained 40 percent vaccination coverage as of Monday. Two countries, Mauritius and Seychelles, have reached the 70 percent vaccination target. 

The international health organization, which has repeatedly called for more vaccine resources in Africa, said these countries need about 1.6 billion more doses to fully vaccinate 70 percent of the continent’s population.   

Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa, said in a release that many COVID-19 fatalities could have been prevented if 70 percent of the continent’s population got vaccinated this year. 

“In a world where Africa had the doses and support to vaccinate 70 percent of its population by the end of 2021—a level many wealthy countries have achieved—we probably would be seeing tens of thousands of fewer deaths from COVID-19 next year,” Moeti said. “But we can still save many lives if we can accelerate the pace of vaccination in early 2022.”

Only 8 percent of Africa’s population is fully vaccinated — by far the lowest of any continent, with every other one having achieved at least a majority fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data. 

Africa is currently dealing with its fastest COVID-19 surge this year amid the spread of the delta and omicron variants, with cases doubling every five days. 

But while the virus infects more people, deaths remain low and decreased last week compared to the previous week, although WHO warned that could change “in the coming weeks.”

“We are cautiously optimistic that deaths and severe illness will remain low in the current wave, but slow vaccine rollout in Africa means both will be much higher than they should be,” Moeti said.

Several African countries are also facing travel bans after South Africa and Botswana first reported the emergence of the omicron variant last month. 

Since then, 2,700 cases involving the omicron variant have been identified across 59 countries, with about a third of these cases being confirmed in African countries. 

Still, dozens of nations, including the U.S., restrict travel from countries near South Africa and Botswana in bans that WHO officials have denounced as ineffective and damaging. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 3 percent of cases in the country are related to the omicron variant.