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Ghana amongst 70% of African countries who have missed COVID jabs target

30 September 2021 at 12:19
The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that only 14 out of the 54 African countries have met the global target of vaccinating more that 10% of their population against the deadly coronavirus by the end of September.
In this Wednesday, July 28, 2021 file photo, a health worker administers a dose of Janssen COVID-19 vaccine by Johnson & Johnson in the Medina neighborhood in Dakar, Senegal.
In this Wednesday, July 28, 2021 file photo, a health worker administers a dose of Janssen COVID-19 vaccine by Johnson & Johnson in the Medina neighborhood in Dakar, Senegal.

Ghana is one of the 54 countries who have failed to meet the WHO deadline.

According to a report by the BBC, the development is largely because Covax, the mechanism set up to distribute vaccine doses to poor nations, has not been able to get enough doses.

Some of the countries who have achieved the highest vaccination rates are Seychelles, Mauritius and Morocco (all above 40%). 

The WHO also attributes this to their robust vaccination programs, size of the country and their population.

Others who’ve met the global target are Tunisia, Eswatini, Cape Verde, Botswana, Comoros, Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea, South Africa, Mauritania, Lesotho and Rwanda.

But overall, just 4% of Africans have been fully jabbed, compared with 60% in the European Union.

Covax had planned to deliver nearly 300m doses to Africa.

But it’s only been able to procure 72m doses after the richer nations bought up much of the stock.

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