WHO Warns Most Vulnerable Groups In Africa Still Wait For Vaccines Against COVID-19

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2021) African health care workers and high risk groups are still waiting for effective vaccines against the coronavirus and are likely to be vaccinated way after lower risk groups in rich countries are made safe, WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti said on Thursday.

"It is deeply unjust that the most vulnerable Africans are forced to wait for vaccines while lower-risk groups in rich countries are made safe," Moeti said in a press release, adding that "health workers and vulnerable people in Africa need urgent access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines."

The press release said that Seychelles was the only African nation that was able to purchase enough doses to launch a nation-wide vaccination, while the richest world powers managed to immunize millions of their residents.

"As of early this week 40 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in 50 mostly high-income countries. However, in Africa ... Seychelles, which is a high-income country, is the only one on the continent to start a national vaccination campaign," the organization said.

The press release added that African countries would receive up to 600 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 through the COVAX Facility, which would be enough to vaccinate over 20 percent of Africa's 1.2 billion population.

"In Africa, the coalition has committed to vaccinating at least 20% of the population by the end of 2021 by providing a maximum of 600 million doses based on two doses per individual disbursed in phases," the organization said.

According to the WHO, the African countries have registered over three million COVID-19 cases, with over 22,000 deaths. In November, a new variant of the coronavirus infection was discovered in South Africa and raised concerns regarding the efficacy of the current vaccines against the mutant strain. Although, the recent scientific research papers suggested that the existing vaccines are equally efficient against any strain of COVID-19, some researchers believed that the South African variant of the coronavirus entails high reinfection risks due to the resistance of its genetic code to the immune response.