The global goal of fully vaccinating 10 per cent of every country’s population by 30 September was set in May by the World Health Assembly, the world’s highest health policy-setting body. Almost 90 per cent of high income-countries have met this target.
Seychelles and Mauritius have fully vaccinated over 60 per cent of their populations, Morocco 48 per cent and Tunisia, Comoros and Cape Verde over 20 per cent. Most of the African countries that have met the goal have relatively small populations and 40 per cent are small island developing states.
All these countries have enjoyed sufficient supplies of vaccines, and many could access doses from separate sources in addition to those delivered through the COVAX Facility, the global platform to ensure equitable access to vaccines. Half of the 52 African countries that have received COVID-19 vaccines have fully vaccinated just 2 per cent or less of their populations.
Nine African countries, including South Africa, Morocco and Tunisia, had reached the 10 per cent goal at the beginning of September and another six managed to sprint ahead to reach the target this month due to rising vaccine deliveries.
Twenty-three million COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Africa in September, a ten-fold increase from June. Yet just 60 million Africans have been fully vaccinated so far and 2 per cent of the more than 6 billion vaccines given globally have been administered on the continent.
WHO has assisted 19 African countries in conducting intra-action reviews, which analyzes their vaccination campaigns and offer recommendations to improve them. The reviews show that uncertainty around deliveries has been a major impediment for many countries.
Prior to COVID‑19, a vaccine for an infectious disease had never been produced in less than several years – and no vaccine existed for preventing a coronavirus infection in humans. However, vaccines have been produced against several animal diseases caused by coronaviruses, including infectious bronchitis virus in birds, canine coronavirus, and feline coronavirus. Previous projects to develop vaccines for viruses in the family Coronaviridae that affect humans have been aimed at severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
A COVID‑19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19). Prior to the COVID‑19 pandemic, an established body of knowledge existed about the structure and function of coronaviruses causing diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). This knowledge accelerated the development of various vaccine platforms during early 2020. The initial focus of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines was on preventing symptomatic, often severe illness. By 19 March, the global pharmaceutical industry announced a major commitment to address COVID-19. The COVID‑19 vaccines are widely credited for their role in reducing the spread, severity, and death caused by COVID-19.
Many countries have implemented phased distribution plans that priorities those at highest risk of complications, such as the elderly, and those at high risk of exposure and transmission, such as healthcare workers.[5] Single dose interim use is under consideration to extend vaccination to as many people as possible until vaccine availability improves.
As of 31 October 2021, 7.04 billion doses of COVID‑19 vaccines have been administered worldwide based on official reports from national public health agencies. AstraZeneca anticipates producing 3 billion doses in 2021, Pfizer–BioNTech 1.3 billion doses, and Sputnik V, Sinopharm, Sinovac, and Janssen 1 billion doses each. Moderna targets producing 600 million doses and Convidecia 500 million doses in 2021. By December 2020, more than 10 billion vaccine doses had been preordered by countries, with about half of the doses purchased by high-income countries comprising 14 per cent of the world's population.
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