EU PUSHES FOR COVID VACCINATIONS IN AFRICA AS SUPPLY ‘NO LONGER’ A PROBLEM

Thu 10 February 2022:

Following a recent boost in vaccine supplies, top European Union authorities have stated that low COVID-19 vaccine absorption in African countries has become the key challenge in the worldwide vaccination deployment.

African countries started their vaccination campaigns far later than wealthy countries, which hurried to get the first limited doses, which began in late 2020.

However, supplies have expanded enormously in recent months, and many states are having difficulty absorbing them, with some, such as Congo and Burundi, using fewer than 20% of available doses, according to Gavi, a nonprofit global vaccine alliance.

“The problem seems no longer to be the level of donations,” France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told a news conference in Lyon on Wednesday.

“The problem is absorption,” he added at the end of a meeting of EU health and foreign ministers, which he chaired as France holds the rotating presidency of the EU.

EU diplomats said that vaccines’ short shelf life, limited storage facilities, poor healthcare infrastructure and vaccine hesitancy were among the main reasons that hampered vaccination in Africa.

EU to boost spending on vaccinations

Separately, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would increase spending to boost vaccinations in African states that were lagging behind.

“We have to make efforts to accelerate vaccinations, especially in African countries where vaccination rates are the lowest,” she said at a conference in Dakar, Senegal.

She added the EU would spend 125 million euros ($143 million) to help countries train medical staff and administer doses, in addition to 300 million euros already committed for this purpose by the EU and its states.

An EU official said the EU wanted to shift its message to Africa “from vaccines to vaccination”.

However, von der Leyen said the EU would keep sending doses to Africa, with the aim of delivering 450 million vaccines by mid-year, three times higher than the volume already shared.

Vaccine absorption will be a key issue at a summit of EU and African Union leaders next week in Brussels, Le Drian said.

Gavi, which co-runs COVAX, the world’s largest COVID-19 vaccine-sharing initiative, reported that 67 percent of the 91 poorest countries it supports have received COVID-19 injections.

However, some African countries trail far behind. According to Gavi, Zambia, Chad, Madagascar, Djibouti, Somalia, Burkina Faso, and Uganda had barely used around one-third of the dosages they had received.

So far, about 10% of African people have been immunised against COVID-19.

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