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 World Health Organization has said.
Only 17% of the continent's population will now be vaccinated by the end of this year, compared with the 40% target set by the WHO, 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 Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's Africa director. "This could end up sending the whole world back to square one." Due to global shortages, the Covax