By BERNA NAMATA

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As the global rollout of vaccines accelerates, East Africa remains on its toes as it is significantly behind in vaccination compared with other parts of the world, raising the risk of the region failing to contain the ongoing pandemic.

The region faces a real risk of failing to secure sufficient doses on time to vaccinate at least 60 percent of its population and achieve herd immunity to contain a mutating virus and the imminent threat of the third wave of coronavirus infections. 

Worse still, the majority of countries in the region lack a rapid deployment plan.

Rolling out effective awareness campaigns to address vaccine hesitancy is also a major challenge as many remain sceptical.  

This coupled with limited access to sufficient doses means that the region is walking a tightrope – the risk of escalation of the ongoing health crisis and prolonged economic damage.

This week, Africa is expected to surpass the four million Covid-19-infection mark since the continent’s first confirmed case in February 2020, according to estimates by the World Health Organisation (WHO).  Over 106,000 lives have been lost so far.

According to the WHO, 10 countries have started vaccination using Covax-funded vaccines, while another 10 began with vaccines procured outside the Covax facility – either bilaterally or through donations. More than 518,000 doses of Covax-supplied vaccines have been administered.

“Every new Covid-19 vaccine delivery to Africa is a step towards equity and ensuring we get our lives and livelihoods back,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa in a press statement released on Friday.

“But doses will remain limited and it’s critical that frontline health workers and other priority groups are at the front of the queue. Health workers deserve protection because without their pivotal role, efforts against the pandemic can go only so far.”

With the exception of Rwanda which has so far vaccinated over 200,000 within one week of receiving its first doses, progress with vaccination remains slow in Kenya and Uganda which have so far vaccinated less than 100,000 people.

As of Thursday, March 11, Rwanda had vaccinated 238,942 people including frontline health workers, people aged 65 and above, people living with chronic health conditions, people with disabilities and teachers.

The list also includes security personnel, airport staff, service providers (hospitality/ tourism industry), government officials, journalists, refugees, prisoners, motorcyclists, taxi drivers and market vendors.

“We are mobilising more doses to allow us to continue to vaccinate more people,” said an official at Rwanda’s Ministry of Health on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the press. 

While Rwanda was allocated 744,000 AstraZeneca and 102,960 Pfizer-BioNTech doses under Covax facility - a co-financing vaccine procurement mechanism set up to ensure equitable access to obtain vaccines, it is currently negotiating with other partners to acquire more doses that are required for it to meet its ambitious target of vaccinating at least 30 percent of its 12 million people by end of this year.

Just about 4,500 people have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in Kenya.

The country received its first batch of 1.02 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines on March 3 from India through Covax.

On Thursday the country received a donated batch of 100,000 doses of the vaccine formerly known as AZD1222 from the Indian government marketed as Covishield. Kenya’s Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) has approved the vaccine for emergency use, with the country targeting to vaccinate 1.25 million frontline healthcare workers (including community health workers), critical and/or essential workers by June.

The WHO has urged countries to ensure that most health workers, if not all, have received their vaccine shots in the first 100 days of the year.

Frontline workers

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health announced that teachers aged 50 years and above in both public and private institutions will begin receiving the vaccination from Monday, March 15. The Military officers also began receiving their shots.

While launching vaccination at the TSC headquarters on Thursday, the commission’s chief executive Nancy Macharia revealed that so far 41 teachers have died of Covid-19 since March last year and called upon teachers to embrace the vaccination and turn up in large numbers.

Burundi government said that the study is still under way for the country to take a position whether vaccination could be done in the country.

“We will let you know when time comes about the position of the country on the vaccination,” Dr Jean Bosco Girukwishaka told The EastAfrican in Bujumbura.

While 22 of Africa’s 54 countries have so far received Covid-19 vaccines through the Covax programme, countries are still struggling to access sufficient Covid-19 vaccine doses to vaccinate at least 60 percent of its population to achieve herd immunity, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC-Africa). 

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Merab and Moses Havyarimana

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DOSES, ROLLOUT STATUS

The first Covid-19 vaccination campaigns in Africa using Covax doses began on March 1, 2021 in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
Ghana took delivery of 600,000 doses on February 24 and Côte d’Ivoire 504,000 doses two days later. Both countries received the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine licensed and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
In total, Covax aims to deliver at least 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.  

KENYA 
First doses received: March 2
Vaccination rolled out: March 5
Doses received: 1,020,000 SII-AstraZeneca (COVISHIELD) vaccine*
Doses allocated: 3,564,000 
Population size: 52.57 million

UGANDA 
First doses received: March 5
Vaccination rolled out: 10 March 
Doses received: 864,000 SII-AstraZeneca (COVISHIELD) vaccine*
Doses allocated: 3,024,000 
Population size: 44.27 million 

RWANDA 
First doses received: March 3
Vaccination rolled out: March 5
Doses received: 240,000 SII-AstraZeneca (COVISHIELD) vaccine, 102,960 Pfizer 
Doses allocated: 744,000 SII-AstraZeneca, 102,960 Pfizer-BioNTech
Population size: 12.63 million
Vaccinated as of 11/03/2021- 238,942. 

SOUTH SUDAN 
Doses allocated: 732,000 SII-AstraZeneca
Population size: 11.0 million.

DRC 
First doses received: March 3
Vaccination rolled out: Not clear 
Doses received: 1.7 million 
Doses allocated: 732,000b SII-AstraZeneca
Population size: 86.7 million  

Source: GAVI.