Category: Medical

GENEVA – The World Health Organization is asking for 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for African countries to administer second doses to those who have received their first shot.

After three weeks of declining rates of COVID-19 infections in Africa, the World Health Organization is reporting an increase in cases.  It says its latest figures of more than 4.7 million cases, including 128,000 deaths indicate a 17% rise over the previous week.

WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti says she is concerned, but that it is too soon to tell whether Africa is on the cusp of a third wave.

“While it is too soon to say if Africa is seeing a resurgence, however, we are seeing increases in a number of countries, we are monitoring the situation very closely.  And we see that we are balancing on a knife’s edge,” she said. “So this makes the rapid rollout of COVID-19 vaccines all the more important.”

Moeti says South Africa accounts for nearly one-third of the 65,000 new cases reported by WHO.  She says she fears new variants of the virus circulating in South Africa may be spreading into neighboring countries.  She notes Namibia and Zambia are among 11 African countries experiencing more cases.

So far, 28 million COVID-19 doses of different vaccines have been administered in Africa, a continent of 1.4 billion people.  Moeti says Africa needs at least 20 million second doses of the Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine by mid-July to give everyone who has received the first dose full immunity.

“Africa needs vaccines now.  Any pause in our vaccination campaigns will lead to lost lives and lost hope,” she said.  “Another 200 million doses are needed so that the continent can vaccinate 10% of its population by September this year.”

Moeti appeals to countries that have vaccinated their high-risk groups to share their excess doses with Africa.  She notes France is the first country to donate tens of thousands of doses to Africa from its domestic supply.

WHO says the European Union has pledged more than 100 million doses for low-income countries and the United States has promised to share 80 million doses with lower-income countries.  Other wealthy countries have said they will follow suit.

 

Source: Voice of America

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt around the world, with devastating impacts on children. Just in the first months of this year, nearly 50% of countries have experienced some level of disruptions to primary healthcare services, including child health services. 9.3 million more children could suffer wasting by 2022 and 168,000 more children could die due to malnutrition if urgent action is not taken.

Last year, up to 142 million children were in households driven into poverty, and hundreds of millions of children are still out of school, with millions at risk of not returning. This comes as we already face a climate crisis and conflicts with devastating impacts on the health, nutrition and survival of children and their families.

A light at the end of the tunnel, but not for all

Some countries are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and have started to ‘return to normal’, with several countries making significant strides in rolling out COVID-19 vaccines.

In stark contrast, many other countries are facing second and third waves, leaving health systems depleted.

For example, the stark increase in COVID-19 cases in India has cost nearly 300,000 people their lives, and is having a devastating impact on the country’s healthcare system, which was already overstretched and underfinanced. Health workers are struggling to cope, with many getting infected themselves. Hospitals are battling a shortage of oxygen, essential drugs and beds, and infections are spreading in rural areas. Disruptions to maternal and child health services are leaving children without access to life-saving healthcare.

India’s neighbour Nepal has also seen a huge spike in cases this month, with concerns of disastrous impacts on children due to a disruption to essential health services, education and increasing poverty. Nepal’s under resourced healthcare system is overstretched — hospital beds are no longer available and oxygen supplies are drying up.

The deepening divide

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the huge inequalities in society. The economic divide between richer and poorer countries has not only meant that the former have been better equipped to provide social safety nets for their populations, but they have also had far better access to tools to help their response, whether PPE, oxygen or vaccines.

High-income countries have bought up two-thirds of the global vaccine supply, and the US and UK alone account for 30% of the 1.03 billion doses that have been rolled out globally. The roughly 68 million doses delivered so far through COVAX, aimed at access to vaccines in lower income countries, pales in comparison — they received less than 7% of global doses. Just 2% of the global share has been rolled out in Africa.

The pandemic has sadly and once again exposed the sobering reality that wealth buys a better response to a health emergency.

Despite the rallying cry for global solidarity, so far these have been empty words trumped by national interest and self-preservation. At a time when the world should be coming together to tackle this global health threat, the actions (and inactions) of many countries and other key players has revealed the inequality of the world we live in.

Investing in health systems must be central to the response

Resilient health systems are critical to absorb the added burden from COVID-19 cases, and to ensure the continued delivery of essential care, irrespective of a person’s ability to pay. A strong health system is also key to ensuring the successful and equitable rollout of COVID-19 and other vaccines.

After all, doses sitting in warehouses are of no use if countries don’t have the systems to deliver them.

We must turn this crisis into an opportunity and emerge stronger from the pandemic.

At the 74^th^ World Health Assembly, which started this week, Save the Children is calling for urgent action from government and other key stakeholders to protect children’s right to survive and thrive. That means donors must fully fund ACT-A, COVAX and the delivery costs to guarantee equity in COVID-19 vaccine access, and urgently contribute a proportion of already secured vaccine doses to COVAX.

In addition, governments and manufacturers must support the sharing of COVID-19 health technology, intellectual property and data, and prioritise investment and collaboration with manufacturers in other countries, to unleash the full vaccine potential.

Also, governments must increase public investment (towards 5% of GDP) to strengthen health systems, with support from donors, to prepare for public health emergencies while continuing to deliver essential health services for all, as part of Universal Health Coverage. That includes investing in the country’s health workforce, which is the backbone of any health system. And lastly, donors must help to ensure that low- and middle-income countries have the medical oxygen they need to treat patients, including by supporting the ACT-A Oxygen Emergency Taskforce.

This is a pivotal moment in history to reset the trajectory towards a more equitable global response to the pandemic. But this will only happen if governments and others in a position of power step up to the plate and take urgent action.

 

 

Source: Save the Children

ADDIS ABABA, May 25 (NNN-ENA) – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa has reached 4,759,772 as of yesterday noon, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said.

The Africa CDC, the specialised healthcare agency of the African Union, said, the death toll from the pandemic stood at 128,463, while 4,303,326 patients across the continent, had recovered from the disease.

South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia and Egypt are the countries with the most cases on the continent, according to the Africa CDC.

In terms of the number of cases, southern Africa is the most affected region, followed by northern Africa and eastern Africa regions, while central Africa is the least affected region on the continent, according to the agency.– NNN-ENA

 

 

Source: NAM News Network

Introduction

As COVID-19 vaccination campaigns progress in some countries around the world, we are seeing the light at the end of the global pandemic tunnel. By mid-April 2021, close to 735,000,000 vaccination doses had been administered, with over 405,000,000 individuals having received at least one vaccination dose, broadly 5 per cent of the global population.

Yet, these impressive numbers mostly reflect the vaccination drives in a small number of countries, with close to 60 per cent of vaccination doses being administered in just three countries: the United States of America, China and India. Only 11 countries had administered more than 50 doses per 100 persons (Israel, Seychelles, United Arab Emirates, Palau, Bhutan, Chile, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, the United States of America, the Maldives and Monaco). Whilst the second week of April 2021 marked the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to 100 economies through the COVAX Facility, including to 61 of the countries eligible for vaccines through the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (COVAX AMC), just 0.6 per cent of all vaccination doses globally, or fewer than 4,700,000 doses, have been administered in Sub-Saharan Africa. Around the world, countries grappling with the most intense pre-existing humanitarian crises (as measured by the Inform Severity Index) are among those with the least access to doses. In the 14 countries in the world identified as facing very severe humanitarian crisis, an average of 0.16 vaccination doses have been administered per 100 persons.

 

 

Source: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies