Only 13 African countries have managed to hit a target set out by the World Health Organization (WHO) of vaccinating more than 10 percent of their population.
The island nation of Seychelles leads the way with 72 percent of its population vaccinated followed by Mauritius with 55 percent and Morocco with 44 percent.
The other countries which have achieved the WHO target are: Tunisia (21 percent), Comoros and Cape Verde (18 percent), Eswatini (16 percent), Lesotho (15 percent), Zimbabwe and Botswana (13 percent), South Africa and Mauritania (12 percent) and Mauritania (11 percent).
Meanwhile, the list of African countries which have administered at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine is led by Seychelles, Mauritius and Cape Verde. The others are Comoros, Morocco, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.
Countries heavily reliant on donors for receiving vaccines have generally experienced low vaccination rates compared to those that have dedicated themselves to also procuring their own vaccines as most donor aid schemes are yet to gather pace.
Africa has the lowest vaccination rate of all regions globally with about two percent of the nearly six billion doses given globally being administered in the continent.
In comparison, the European Union and the United Kingdom have vaccinated more than 60 percent of their people and high-income countries have administered 48 times more doses per person than low-income nations, according to the WHO.
WHO Regional director for Africa Dr. Matshidiso Moeti warned that vaccine inequity and delays may turn areas in Africa with low vaccination rates into “breeding grounds for vaccine-resistant variants”.
The WHO recently said Africa faced a 470 million shortfall in COVID-19 vaccine doses this year after the COVAX alliance cut its projected shipments, raising the risk of new and deadly variants.
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