Eritrea is the last country in the world, along with North Korea, to refuse vaccination against Covid-19. In fact, in recent days, Tanzania and Burundi have agreed to the vaccine with the help of the international community. However, the continent is far behind in vaccination campaigns.
With the launch of the vaccination campaign in Tanzania on Wednesday, and the imminent arrival of doses into Burundi, only Eritrea is still closing its doors for vaccination. The number of injections worldwide exceeded 4 billion dose mark this week, but the differences are still large: “high-income” countries, according to the World Bank classification, administered 61 times more doses than those with “low income”.
According to the African Office of the World Health Organization, only 1.6% of the continent’s population is fully vaccinated, while almost three quarters of the available stocks have been administered. The top student, the Seychelles, has vaccinated more than 68% of the population. Mauritius follows 33% and Morocco 26%.
WHO notes that vaccine shipments have increased: 4 million doses of the Covax mechanism arrived in Africa last week, up from 245,000 in June. Covax is building on this momentum and hopes to be able to send 520 million doses to Africa by the end of 2021.
To fully immunize 30% of the continent’s adult population would require an additional 300 million.
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