Delta variant has spiked Covid-19 deaths in Africa by 80% in one month, WHO says

WHO’s Vaccine Introduction Officer for the African Region, Phionah Atuhebwe, told CNN on Monday that the continent was witnessing an unprecedented rise in coronavirus fatalities. “COVID-19 death rates have increased across Africa, with the highest weekly rate (6,343) to date reported during the week starting 19 July 2021,” said Atuhebwe.”Deaths increased by 89%, from 13,242 to 24,987, in the last 28 days, when compared against statistics for the previous 28 days,” she added.WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus In West Africa, a resurgence of cases is overwhelming the already stretched healthcare systems of affected countries in the region. Less than one million of Senegal’s 16 million people have received Covid-19 vaccination, setting the country up for a Africa’s slow vaccination rate has been largely hinged on global vaccine inequality as wealthier countries in the West stockpile more Covid shots than they need.Ghebreyesus described the global distribution of vaccines as “unjust” while expressing worry that Africa was at higher risk of being overrun by the pandemic due to vaccine shortages.”All regions are at risk, but none more so than Africa… Many African countries have prepared well to roll out vaccines, but the vaccines have not arrived,” he said. “This is a very serious problem if we’re going to take action against this pandemic and end it.”Vaccination efforts are ramping up as donations trickle in. The US this week sent millions of doses to countries including Senegal, South Africa and Nigeria. Over the weekend Nigeria received delivery of 4 million doses of the Moderna vaccine on Sunday, this is in addition to more than 4 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca earlier received from COVAX in March, the country’s vaccination agency said Monday. More than 2 million people have so far received a vaccination shot in Nigeria, with more than one million fully vaccinated.South Africa took delivery of 2.8 million out of an expected 5.6 million Pfizer vaccines donated by the US government. 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The global health body now says just over half of countries worldwide have inoculated 10 percent of their population. However, nearly 70 percent of African nations will not achieve this landmark by September, the WHO director-general stated.”Around 3.5 million to 4 million doses are administered weekly on the continent, but to meet the September target this must rise to 21 million doses at the very least each week,” he said.