Africa’s Covid caseload nears 5 million
As of June 6, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa reached about 4.9 million, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows.
At the same time, the continent’s death toll from the pandemic stands at about 132,000 while over 4.4 million patients across the continent have recovered from the virus.
South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and Egypt are the countries with the most cases in the continent, according to the Africa CDC.
South Africa has recorded the highest COVID-19 cases in Africa at over 1.6 million while the two northern African countries, Morocco and Tunisia, reported 521,195 and 353,782 cases as of Sunday, June 6, respectively.
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In terms of the caseload, Southern Africa remains the most affected block, followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while central Africa is the least affected, according to the Africa CDC.
While the global average of people who have at least received the first dose of the vaccine according to figures from research and data collection organization, Our World in Data, stands at about 11 per cent, the average in Africa is still below 2 per cent, with only about 0.6 per cent of people having received the full dose.
Some countries such as neighboring Tanzania and Chad haven’t started vaccination campaigns while others such as Burkina Faso and Madagascar have just started giving shots.
In Kenya, over 975,000 people have so far been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus countrywide with a total of 8,181 having received their second dose.
Of these 4,607 are health workers, 1,514, aged 58 years and above 1,053, Teachers 606 whole Security Officers 401, data from the Health ministry shows.
Richard Mihigo, head of the WHO immunization and vaccine development program in Africa, said that of the 66 million doses under the COVAX plan that should have been available to African countries by the end of May, only 19 million vaccines were delivered.
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In total, close to 49 million corona vaccine doses have so far been sent to 51 African countries. Among them are AstraZeneca vaccines Johnson & Johnson, BioNTech / Pfizer, and Sinovac.
Last week, the WHO again called on the global community to share vaccines with Africa to meet the continent’s acute needs.
