The delivery of almost 14.8 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to 22 African countries through the COVAX Facility, the global vaccine distribution initiative, is "great news," the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region Director, Matshidiso Moeti, said Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th March, 2021) The delivery of almost 14.8 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to 22 African countries through the COVAX Facility, the global vaccine distribution initiative, is "great news," the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region Director, Matshidiso Moeti, said Thursday.
"COVAX shipments continue at a rapid pace, and as of yesterday, almost 14.8 million doses have been delivered to 22 African countries. This is great news. Nineteen African countries have now started vaccination campaigns, and through COVAX, more than 518,000 doses have been administered," Moeti told a WHO Regional Office for Africa press briefing.
Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire on March 1 became the first countries to begin administering COVID-19 vaccines received through the COVAX scheme, and nations such as Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have also received their first shipments through the initiative.
The WHO regional director confirmed that the number of new cases reported weekly on the African continent has plateaued since mid-February.
"The continent has experienced a plateau over the past three weeks at around 70,000 new cases, and there is an upward trend in some countries such as Cameroon and Algeria," Moeti added.
On Wednesday, the WHO African Region confirmed that more than 3.98 million positive tests for COVID-19 have been registered on the continent since the start of the pandemic, and Africa's death toll exceeds 106,000.
More than 1.5 million of the cases reported on the continent have been registered in South Africa.
