Covid-19: Morocco among three African countries that hit WHO vaccination goal

Morocco, Seychelles and Mauritius are the only three African countries that have already met the vaccination goal set in May by the World Health Assembly, the world’s highest health policy-setting body.

At the current pace, just two more countries, Tunisia and Cabo Verde, will also hit the target, said World Health Organization in a press release issued Thursday.

Just five African countries, less than 10 pc of the continent, are projected to hit the year-end target of fully vaccinating 40% of their people, unless efforts to accelerate the pace take off, warned WHO, noting that the African continent grapples to meet rising demand for essential vaccination commodities, such as syringes.

In addition, limited access to crucial commodities such as syringes may slow the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in Africa. UNICEF has reported an imminent shortfall of up to 2.2 billion auto-disable syringes for Covid-19 vaccination and routine immunization in 2022. This includes 0.3ml auto-disable syringes for Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccination.

According to the WHO, there is no global stockpile of the 0.3ml specialized syringes, which differ from the 0.5ml syringes used for other types of Covid-19 vaccines and routine vaccination.

The market for 0.3ml auto-disable syringes is tight and extremely competitive. As such, these are in short supply and will remain so through at least the first quarter of next year, underlined WHO.

“The looming threat of a vaccine commodities crisis hangs over the continent. Early next year Covid-19 vaccines will start pouring into Africa, but a scarcity of syringes could paralyze progress”, said WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti.

Africa has fully vaccinated 77 million people, just 6 of its population. In comparison, over 70 pc of high-income countries have already vaccinated more than 40 pc of their people.