Only eight African states have administered COVID-19 vaccines

Only eight African states have administered COVID-19 vaccines –  Survey

By Tasie Theodore

A survey of African states has revealed that only eight of the continent’s 55 states, representing 14.5 percent of the countries in the continent may have currently commenced the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine on their population.

The states are Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Rwanda, Seychelles, Maurituius and Zimbabwe.

A ninth state, Guinea has also adminstered a few dozen of the vaccines on its population, albeit on an experimental basis.

In addition, two other states are known to have taken delivery of their first doses of the vaccine but are yet to commence their administration on the population.

The vaccines that have presently made their way into the continent include those produced by AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Sputnik V, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Moderna.

There is also an African Union-backed plan which involves the ordering of 672m doses of the vaccine on behalf of, and in conjunction with the continent’s states.

The idea behind this continental effort is to have some 20 percent of the population vaccinated at the end of 2021 but this would also still be some distance from the herd immunity baseline projections for the continent.

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa