COVID shots - The African Mirror

May

2022

When Africans asked for COVID shots, they didn’t get them. Now they don’t want them

EDWARD MCALLISTER and COOPER INVEEN IT"S noisy inside the Mamprobi clinic in Accra as kids clamber over their mothers while they wait to get their measles vaccines. Outside, an area reserved for COVID-19 shots is empty. A health worker leans back in his chair and scrolls on a tablet. One woman, waiting to get her daughter inoculated, is fully aware of the dangers of measles: the high fever, the rash, and the risk to eyesight. But COVID-19? She has never heard of a single case. The perception that COVID-19 doesn't pose a significant threat is common in Ghana's capital and…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Summit secures $2.4 bln for COVID shots for poor countries

COVID-19

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY and JOHN MILLER DOZENS of countries have pledged nearly $2.4 billion to the COVAX vaccine-sharing plan to widen the availability of COVID-19 shots to people in poorer nations who have so far come up short. The announcements, ranging from $2,500 from island nation Mauritius to millions of dollars and doses from larger, wealthier countries, came during a video summit hosted by Japan and the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, which leads the COVAX facility alongside the World Health Organization. "We have taken a big step towards 'one world protected'," said Jose Manuel Barroso, GAVI vaccine alliance chairman. The fresh funds…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

World risks ‘moral catastrophe’ if COVID shots delayed in Africa, its CDC chief says

NEWS

THE world risks a "moral catastrophe" if COVID-19 vaccinations are delayed in Africa while wealthier regions inoculate their entire populations, the head of the continent's disease control body has said. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hopes significant vaccination campaigns on the continent will begin in April, its head, John Nkengasong, told reporters. "That's a long way to go given that this virus transmits very quickly," he said, adding that in Africa, "the second wave is here with a vengeance". Cases of the new coronavirus increased by nearly 19% since last week and deaths increased by 26%,…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

WHO vaccine scheme risks failure, leaving poor countries no COVID shots until 2024

COVID-19

FRANSESCO GUARASCIO THE global scheme to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries faces a "very high" risk of failure, potentially leaving nations home to billions of people with no access to vaccines until as late as 2024, internal documents say. The World Health Organization's COVAX programme is the main global scheme to vaccinate people in poor and middle-income countries around the world against the coronavirus. It aims to deliver at least 2 billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021 to cover 20% of the most vulnerable people in 91 poor and middle-income countries, mostly in Africa, Asia and Latin…