Covid Deaths in Africa Jumped 40% Last Week

From [HERE] Africa is now in the deadliest stage of its pandemic, and there is little prospect of relief in sight.

The Delta variant is sweeping across the continent. Namibia and Tunisia are reporting more deaths per capita than any other country. Hospitals across the continent are filling up, oxygen supplies and medical workers are stretched thin and recorded deaths jumped 40 percent last week alone.

But only about 1 percent of Africans have been fully vaccinated. And even the African Union’s modest goal of getting 20 percent of the population vaccinated by the end of 2021 seems out of reach.

Rich nations have bought up most doses long into the future, often far more than they could conceivably need. Hundreds of millions of shots from a global vaccine-sharing effort have failed to materialize.

Supplies to African countries are unlikely to increase much in the next few months, rendering the most effective tool against Covid, vaccines, of little use in the current wave. Instead, many countries are resorting to lockdowns and curfews.

Even a year from now, supplies may not be enough to meet demand from Africa’s 1.3 billion people unless richer countries share their stockpiles and rethink how the distribution system should work.

“The blame squarely lies with the rich countries,” said Dr. Githinji Gitahi, a commissioner with Africa Covid-19 Response, a continental task force. “A vaccine delayed is a vaccine denied.”

Unable to strike early deals for vaccines, African nations relied on Covax, a global partnership, to deliver free doses to countries that needed them.

But Covax deliveries ground to a halt after India imposed export restrictions on the AstraZeneca vaccine as it dealt with its own resurgence this year.