Africa Covid jab shortfall could take world ‘back to square one’

Africa faces a 470 million shortfall in Covid-19 vaccine doses this year after the Covax alliance cut its projected shipments, raising the risk of new and deadly variants, the WHO said on Thursday.

Only 17 percent of the continent’s population will now be vaccinated by the end of this year, compared with the 40 percent target set by the World Health Organisation, the global agency’s Africa unit said at its weekly briefing in the Congolese capita of Brazzaville.

“The staggering inequity and severe lag in shipments of vaccines threatens to turn areas in Africa … into breeding grounds for vaccine-resistant variants,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s Africa director.

thenews.com.pk