Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Delivered by WHO Director for Universal Health Coverage: Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases, Dr Benido Impouma
Good morning and good afternoon to all the journalist colleagues participating in this press conference on COVID-19 in Africa, including the vaccine rollout.
I’m very pleased to be joined for this conversation by Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the Director-General of the National Institute for Biomedical Research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Technical Secretary of the national Multisectoral Committee for the Response to COVID-19. He will speak about vaccine rollout in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Bienvenue à cette session Prof!
I’m also happy to welcome Dr Githinji Gitahi, the Group Chief Executive Officer of AMREF Health Africa, who will share with us how communities are responding to the lack of access to vaccines.
The current surge in new COVID-19 cases in Africa is easing off – but with 108,000 new cases, more than 3000 lives lost in the past week, and 16 countries still in resurgence this fight is far from over.
Health workers, services and communities can and should use this time to regroup and prepare for the next wave. With end-of-year travel and festive celebrations fast approaching, fresh increases in cases should be expected in the coming months. Without widespread vaccination and other public health and social measures, the continent’s fourth wave is likely to be the most brutal yet.
Yesterday I joined government and private sector leaders, international organizations and other partners, for the global COVID-19 Summit convened by the United States. Everyone in attendance committed to three goals – vaccinate the world, save lives now and build back better.
This is the kind of international solidarity that will help to end the pandemic.
The United States and governments attending the Summit put forward concrete actions, including for countries to urgently convert dose-sharing pledges into deliveries and for all countries to vaccinate at least 70% of their populations by 2022. They also called for solutions to solve the oxygen crisis, to eliminate the testing gap and to make sure all countries have access to safe and effective therapeutics.
This amplifies the messages that we as WHO have been promoting throughout the pandemic, along with a growing number of our global health advocates.
What is needed now are strong accountability mechanisms to ensure these targets translate into real results in countries, and that promises made are promises kept on sharing vaccines. You will agree with me that actions speak far louder than words.
Global coordination mechanisms are needed to bring together vaccine-producing nations, manufacturers, international organizations and other stakeholders, to promote transparency on vaccine delivery schedules and sharing of other key information.
This will help countries to plan and rollout the vaccines efficiently. A key finding from the intra-action reviews in our countries of the rollout to date, is that the instability caused by inconsistent vaccine supply is negatively impacting vaccine uptake.
At the same time, we know that vaccine supplies are increasing. So, our message to countries is really to get ready – get ready by strengthening the capacities required to pick-up the pace of vaccination. WHO teams are in the field closely working with partners in accelerating this pace.
From the rollout so far, we are starting to see what works and what does not work: what works is approaches such as diversifying vaccination sites and bringing them to places that people frequent regularly – like churches, mosques and markets. Getting information out to communities through religious leaders, women’s and youth groups – leveraging networks that are already well-established and that communities trust. These are some of the things we see are working in countries.
Financing remains vital, including international mechanisms to facilitate rapid access to the catalytic funds that will help countries to rollout the vaccines faster.
As it stands one in three people globally are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but in Africa this drops to one in 25.
COVAX deliveries are still coming in to African countries – with four million doses arriving in the past week. These shipments are greatly appreciated, but it is concerning that only a third of the doses pledged by the end of 2021, have been received.
The pace of vaccinations in Africa must rise by over seven times to around 150 million per month on average to meet the global goal of vaccinating 70% of every country’s population. This is huge and it will need to be accompanied in equal scale by adequate delivery capacities – staff, supplies and funding to massively ramp-up the rollout.
It is in every country’s interest that this happens quickly. The longer the delay in rolling out the vaccines, the greater the risk of additional challenges emerging be they variants, hesitancy, operational gaps or other threats.
So, I look forward to our fruitful discussion today and thank you very much for joining us.