(Bloomberg) —
New variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, will find an easy path in Africa as long as the continent remains largely unvaccinated, the World Health Organization warned.
Africa, the world’s least vaccinated continent, last week recorded the highest number coronavirus cases since November’s discovery of the new omicron variant, the WHO and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in separate briefings on Thursday.
With only six of Africa’s 54 countries having reached the global target of vaccinating 40% of their population, millions of people have no protection from the virus. This is “simply dangerous and untenable,” said Richard Mihigo, program area manager for immunization and vaccine development at the WHO’s Africa office.
Less than 8% of Africa’s population is fully inoculated. Cases on the continent almost doubled in the week through Dec. 9. South Africa, the current epicenter of omicron’s spread, together with Egypt and Zimbabwe recorded the steepest increases, the Africa CDC said.
“We are not going to win the war against this pandemic if we are not vaccinated,” Africa CDC Director John Nkengasong said.
Still, African nations have set a goal to manufacture at least 60% of their own vaccines by 2040. That will mean the “way we fight the next pandemic will be very different from this pandemic,” Nkengasong said.
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