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As Africa has the world’s lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate, the emergence of more contagious variants increases, as does the risk of the first generation of vaccines becoming ineffective. While the insufficient supply of COVID-19 vaccines across the continent contributed to a low vaccination rate, the HOPE project found that several factors contributed to the slow deployment of the vaccine in Africa.
“There is a combination of challenges attributable to the very low vaccine deployments in Africa,” says Asefa Wondwossen, deputy regional director for Africa of Project HOPE. “We found that even when some countries received doses of vaccines, they were not always able to mass immunize.”
Through its involvement in the region, including trainings on COVID and vaccine science for health workers, Project HOPE has identified several challenges and gaps contributing to low vaccination rates in Africa. Although insufficient supplies of COVID-19 vaccines remain a major problem for African countries, other problems reported include lack of funds, lack of trained professionals and the reluctance of the population to get vaccinated. In addition, many countries have not been able to reach priority groups because they do not have up-to-date registration systems to locate and register these priority individuals. Finally, due to a severe shortage of vaccine doses, many countries were using different vaccines, which created challenges such as tracking who gets what type of vaccine, different logistics and storage requirements. and training vaccinators to administer different vaccines.
“Identifying the challenges that led to the slow rollout of the vaccine is just the first step. Countries now need to address these challenges to quickly get more vaccines into people’s hands, ”said Wondwossen. “Every dose of vaccine is like liquid gold. No country can afford to waste vaccine doses when variants spread and lives are at stake. ”
In order to accelerate the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine, Project HOPE recommends that countries adopt a three-pronged approach: strengthen coordination and leadership capacities at national and subnational levels, train health workers and vaccinators in ‘administration of different vaccines as well as monitoring and management of adverse reactions, and developing tactics to improve community awareness of vaccine safety and respond to hesitations.
As of June 2, 2021, Africa had administered 59% of its vaccine supply, which translates to only 1.86% and 0.51% of the population receiving the first and second doses of the COVI-19 vaccine, respectively. For Africa, the goal is to vaccinate at least 20% of the population by providing up to 600 million doses by the end of 2021.
Last week, the World Health Organization warned that 47 of Africa’s 54 countries would miss the September target of vaccinating 10% of their population unless the continent receives an additional 225 million doses.
Earlier this year, Project HOPE launched a online training in collaboration with Africa-CDC and Brown University targeting 37 African countries to ensure that local vaccinators are prepared and ready to meet the demands of their roles as COVID-19 vaccines become available. Almost 900 master trainers in the target countries have been trained in four languages (English, Arabic, French and Portuguese).
About Project HOPE With a mission to put the power in the hands of local health workers to save lives around the world, Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian organization operating in more than 25 countries. Founded in 1958, we work alongside local health systems to improve health and support community resilience. We work at the epicenter of today’s biggest health challenges, including infectious and chronic diseases; disasters and health crises; maternal, newborn and child health; pandemic preparedness and response; mental health for health workers; and policies that influence the delivery of health care. For more information visit www.ProjectHOPE.org and follow us on Twitter @ProjectHOPEorg.
For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact:
Hajer Naili, Media Relations Manager, [email protected], +1 (917) 889-5982 / +33 6 03 50 53 93
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