It will take Africa much longer to control COVID-19 on the continent than we previous thought because of the very limited rates of vaccination that we have, Dr John Nkengasong, the Director of the Africa Centres for Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), has stated.
"We have only successfully vaccinated 5.5 percent out of the 1.2 billion people on the African continent and that is not good a position of controlling and eliminating the virus;" he said.
He said: "It's everybody's responsibility to make sure that everyone is vaccinated against COVID-19. The community, the media together and the public health experts have a role to play.
"We have been very loud and clear about the danger and the risk for the continent not getting appropriate access to vaccines, bur we need to accelerate our efforts and at least try to vaccinate 70 percent of the African population by the end of next year so that we have a chance of controlling this pandemic".
Dr Nkengasong said at a weekly media briefing monitored by the Ghana News Agency in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania that to date, the highly contagious variants of the coronavirus continue to spread across the continent.
"As of October 28, 2021, a total of 8.4 million people had been infected with the virus in Africa. Of that, over 21 8,000 people had lost their lives, accounting for 4.4 percent of the cases reported globally.
"The continent is still going through a severe third wave. 82 percent of our member states are currently going through the third wave. Seven countries: Algeria, Benin, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Somalia, and Tunisia, are currently experiencing the fourth wave," Dr Nkengasong.
He said the Africa CDC is however, encouraged by the recent downward trend in the number of coronavirus cases registered across the region.