Africa stands "little chance" of overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and could become a "perfect incubator for variants" without a massive step-up in vaccination rates and a fair vaccine access, a report released on Monday said
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2021) Africa stands "little chance" of overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and could become a "perfect incubator for variants" without a massive step-up in vaccination rates and a fair vaccine access, a report released on Monday said.
"Unless it can vaccinate 70% of its population by the end of 2022, Africa stands little chance of overcoming the pandemic," the Ibrahim Index of African Governance published by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation warned.
According to the report, as of November 18, just 6.8% of the continent's population had been fully vaccinated, and only five African countries are predicted to meet the World Health Organization target of vaccinating 40% of their population by the end of 2021.
"From early in this crisis, our Foundation and other African voices have been warning that an un-vaccinated Africa could become a perfect incubator for variants," the foundation's founder and chairman Mo Ibrahim said.
The Sudanese billionaire businessman and philanthropist said that the recent detection of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in South Africa is a reminder that COVID-19 remains a global threat and that immunizing the whole world is the only way forward.
The report claimed that Africa accounts for just 2.9% of the 7.6 billion vaccines that have been administered globally and warned that the already low vaccination rate might be far worse as the pandemic disrupted the weak African registration capacity.
"Just 10% of deaths in Africa are registered and over 50% of African children do not have a legal existence," the Mo Ibrahim Foundation said.
It also stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic is not an anomaly in Africa, as roughly one new disease is emerging each year in the continent.
