The African region is lagging behind in COVID-19 vaccination roll out with only 10.2% of its population fully vaccinated compared to 55.5% globally. Between January and August 2021, the low vaccination coverage was due to insufficientavailability of vaccines. Since August 2021, vaccine supply in the African region has increased significantly, especiallythrough the COVAX Facility, which has donated 69% of all vaccines received in the African region. With only 51.1% of vaccines received administered and reports of expired COVID-19 vaccines in 27 countries, the low vaccination rateappears to be the consequence of insufficient vaccine demand and limited capacity to roll out the vaccination programme. As result, only 5 countries have achieved the target of vaccinating 40% of their population set for December 2021, and 15 countries are yet to reach 10% of their population fully vaccinated. It is critical for the WHO Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) and other partners to provide the requisite technical and financial support to Member States in order to speed and scale up COVID-19 vaccination and achieve the target of fully vaccinating 70% of the population in all countries by the end of June 2022. To this end, the WHO AFRO launched, in January 2022, a new initiative aiming to ramp up COVID-19 vaccination in Africa: the Multi-Partners Country Support Teams initiative.
Source: World Health Organization