Day: August 27, 2021

Posted on

Covid-19: US ships more than 2 million more vaccines to Africa

WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States is shipping more than two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Algeria, Ghana and Yemen, the White House said, boosting efforts to combat a third wave of the pandemic across Africa.

The shipments, which a White House official said would land before the end of this week, will be the first donated by the United States to all three countries. They come on the heels of recent deliveries to other countries on the continent, including Nigeria and hard-hit South Africa last month.

Taken from surplus in the US stockpile, 604,800 doses of Johnson & Johnson will go to Algeria, just over 1.2 million doses of Moderna to Ghana, and another 151,200 J&J doses to Yemen, said the official, who asked not to be identified.

All the shipments are being made through Covax, the distributor backed by the World Health Organization and the Gavi vaccine alliance.

President Joe Biden, who took office promising to focus on getting Americans vaccinated after suffering the world’s highest toll from coronavirus, has since expanded his goal to make the United States the vaccine “arsenal” internationally.

The “administration understands that putting an end to this pandemic requires eliminating it around the world,” the White House official said.

Biden has come under fire for authorizing Americans to get booster shots starting in September, but US officials say there is enough capacity, even while maintaining the flow of donations abroad.

The latest shipments will raise the total number of US shots delivered in Africa to more than 25 million, the official said.

Africa is in the grip of a third wave of infections and losing the race to mass vaccination.

Less than two percent of people across the continent are fully vaccinated, with some countries having to destroy unused shots because they lack the health infrastructure to administer them or have met strong vaccine hesitancy.

Ghana, with a population of around 32 million, was initially hailed as a model for coronavirus response, even using drones to deliver vaccines to remote areas. Ghana was also the first country to get vaccines through Covax in February.

However, less than three percent of the population is estimated to have been fully vaccinated. The Covid death toll of 982, reported to the World Health Organization, is believed to be underestimated due to lack of testing.

Algeria, which has close relations with Moscow and was an early recipient of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, is also struggling to get shots in arms. According to WHO figures, there have been 5,063 Covid deaths in the country of 43 million people.

There is a lack of reliable pandemic data from Yemen, already on its knees from war and poverty. The devastated nation of 30 million relies on vaccine donations but also suffers from threadbare healthcare infrastructure.

The White House says about 130 million doses have so far been distributed from the United States to 90 countries.

In addition to dipping into its surplus supplies, the US government has purchased 500 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses specifically for distribution to the African Union and 92 selected low-income countries. The United States also donated $2 billion to Covax.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Posted on

COVID Pandemic Dampens Africa’s Economic Growth

Three years ago, nearly every country in Africa agreed to be part of a continental free trade area intended to lower tariffs and boost economies. But the agreement has yet to be fully implemented because of restrictions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Bank says the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement set up the largest free trade bloc in the world, and has the potential to pull 30 million people out of poverty.

The agreement reduces tariffs between African countries and, the World Bank says, could boost Africa’s combined GDP by $450 billion by 2035.

But those prospects may not materialize because many countries in Africa have yet to fully open their economies due to health restrictions to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Kennedy Adede, founder of Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), which works in poor neighborhoods in Nairobi, says the lack of employment opportunities has to be addressed.

“People are going through a lot of hardship, people are more scared of dying from hunger than dying from this virus and that has become a challenge. How do we solve that? That’s why this is not just about the vaccine alone,” Adede said. “It needs a multi-angle [approach] to fight this economically to ensure that we drive more jobs. If you think in Africa right now, the population of young people is scary and if they don’t trust what we are saying, then we are gone.”

Speaking at a recent webinar, John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that if Africa was better prepared to combat the pandemic, the free trade area would be flourishing.

“It’s really for us in public health to continue to make sure that we place the public health agenda at the center of political dialogues, at the center of the economic dialogue. Look at the damage the pandemic has caused to our continental aspiration for the continental free trade area. I will argue that without this pandemic, that whole aspiration, the developmental agenda would have been at a very different level today in the continent,” Nkengasong said.

Nearly 18 months into the pandemic, just 2.5% of Africa’s 1.3 billion people are vaccinated. The African CDC wants to vaccinate 60% of the population by the end of 2022.

The agency says Africa had received 123.5 million vaccine doses by mid-August. The continent secured the vaccine through bilateral agreements and COVAX, a global initiative that seeks to provide vaccine to developing countries.

African countries will also share some 400 million Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses, which are being manufactured in South Africa.

But Nkengasong says Africa is still not receiving enough vaccine.

“When COVID just started, it was very difficult for anyone in Africa to know somebody who has died of COVID but now is a common thing we know, and that is pushing that you see lines of people out there. So the first doses of vaccines that we supplied in the continent, some of those ended up in wastage because we were dealing with misinformation. The challenge we have now is that people are saying here we are with open arms, ready to get the jab, but the jabs are not there,” Nkengasong said.

Africa’s economy is still expected to grow 3.4% this year, but that’s of little consequence to the tens of millions who are struggling to find a steady income as the virus takes away jobs and lives.

Source: Voice of America