Africa Covid-19 caseload edges past 6.4 million
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Africa hit over 6.4 million on the week ending July 24 according to data from Africa CDC.
The death toll from the pandemic stood at 162,875 while 5,630,564 patients across the continent had recovered from the disease.
South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Ethiopia still remain countries with the most cases in the continent as the world grapples with the pandemic 18 months in a row.
South Africa has recorded the most Covid-19 cases with over 2.4 million cases while Morocco reported over 570,000 cases as of July 24.
Southern Africa remains the most affected region followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while central Africa is the least affected, according to the Africa CDC.
On vaccination, only 2 per cent of Africa’s population has received at least one vaccine dose—compared to 40 per cent in Europe.
With the global vaccination picture is still one of stark inequality, African governments and institutions are looking for options that don’t depend on international donors.
The global COVID-19 vaccination platform that was supposed to help deliver doses to countries around the world, COVAX ran into a supply breakdown in March.
Read also: About 500,000 Covid-19 doses go down the drain in Africa
With the third wave of COVID-19 now hitting lower-income countries harder than the first two, their leaders are looking to build a regional response that can be sustained into the future.
The African Union is expected to ship about six million doses of the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine this week, the first shipment purchased through the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust.
This is also the first delivery to stem from a March deal signed by the AU and J&J for 400 million doses made by the South African company Aspen Pharmacare.
“When we got into trouble this time, it was because there was no production from the African continent. We won’t solve this permanently through donations. We have to have a sustainable approach to production,” Strive Masiyiwa, special envoy to the AU said.
Meanwhile, Kenya has announced a Covid-19 positivity rate of 12.2 per cent, down from the record 13.9 per cent reported on Saturday, July 24, after recording 664 new infections on Sunday.
This was after analyzing 5,432 samples, pushing the total number of tests conducted since March last year to 2,093,014.
The number of confirmed cases in the country rose to 197,409, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said.
CS Kagwe further announced that the death toll had increased by 16 to 3,865; one death occurred over the past 24 hours, while the rest were late death reports confirmed after the audit of facility records in July.
A total of 201 patients had recovered from the virus, 143 of them under home-based care and 58 from the various hospitals across the country, raising the count to 185,808.
The CS added that 1,281 patients are admitted to health facilities across the country while 3,683 were being treated at home.
Regarding vaccination, CS Kagwe said 1,672,687 doses had been administered across the country by Sunday with 1,047,355 being first doses and 625,332 second doses.
The uptake rate of the second dose was 59.7 per cent, with the majority of recipients being male (55 per cent), whereas the proportion of fully vaccinated adults was 2.3 per cent.
Among those who had received their second doses were 194,891 people aged 58 years and above, 110,950 health workers, 89,557 teachers, 49,658 security officers, and 180,276 ungrouped individuals.
