vaccination drive - The African Mirror

Sep

27

2021

Global vaccines project to revamp rules after Britain got more than Botswana

FRANCESCO GUARASCIO IN March, as wealthy Britain led the world in vaccination rates and almost half its people had received a shot, the organisation meant to ensure fair global access to COVID-19 vaccines allotted the country over half a million doses from its supplies. By contrast Botswana, which hadn't even started its vaccination drive, was assigned 20,000 doses from the same batch of millions of Pfizer mRNA vaccines, according to publicly available documents detailing COVAX's allocations. Other poorer nations, with fledgling vaccination drives at best, also received fewer shots than Britain. Rwanda and Togo were each allotted about 100,000 doses,…

Jun

12

2021

By The African Mirror

SA officially enters third wave

COVID-19

SOUTH Africa has entered its third wave of COVID-19 infections, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NCID) has disclosed, as the continent's worst-hit country registered 9,149 new cases. The NCID said South Africa had exceeded the national 7-day moving average incidence of 5,959 cases as defined by the ministerial advisory committee (MAC). The MAC advisory reported the latest wave of cases had a 7-day moving average threshold that was 30% of the peak incidence of the previous wave, which reached around 10,000 infections driven by a new variant. "South Africa technically entered the third wave today," the NCID said in…

Mar

17

2021

By The African Mirror

Morocco’s vaccination drive bypasses undocumented migrants

COVID-19

AHMED ELJECHTIMI MOROCCO is further ahead with its COVID-19 vaccination programme than any other African country, but undocumented migrants are not a part of its plans, potentially undermining efforts to come to grips with the disease. The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged Morocco's tourism sector, and led to a drop in industrial exports. The country hopes that the inoculation programme will help its economy recover. Its vaccination rate of 14 doses per 100 people has outperformed that of much wealthier France and Italy. So far, the programme has concentrated on medics, other key workers, older people and those with chronic ailments,…

Mar

02

2021

By The African Mirror

Ivory Coast starts vaccination drive

COVID-19

LOUCOUMANE COULIBALY IVORY Coast yesterday launched the world's first COVID-19 inoculation drive with doses imported from the COVAX sharing facility, a milestone in the race to extend vaccine access to poorer countries. Patrick Achi, the secretary-general at the presidency, was the first to be vaccinated at a sports complex in the commercial capital Abidjan. Onlookers cheered as a health worker in a white coat and pink scrubs delivered the injection. Medical personnel, teachers and security forces members were also being vaccinated in the first phase of the campaign targeting 3% of the population. "The vaccines offer us the hope of…