AFRICAN health authorities are calling for better coordination to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are distributed quickly to all African nations.
Vaccine supplies have surpassed demand for the first time since the pandemic began two years ago. But health officials at a conference in Nigeria said Wednesday that a lack of refrigeration and poor infrastructure were major challenges for vaccine equity.
The African Union’s Vaccine Delivery Alliance organized the conference to highlight hurdles many African countries face delivering COVID-19 vaccines to their citizens.
Tian Johnson, an AU community engagement official, said, “What we see before us through the magnifying glass of COVID-19 are the fruits of decades of deprioritizing health at country levels. The fact remains, as Africans we must be absolutely sure that we leave no one behind.”
About 20 percent of Africa’s 1.2 billion people have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, a poor record compared with
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