News Releases

Africa is facing a fast-surging third wave of COVID-19 pandemic, with cases spreading more rapidly and projected to soon overtake the peak of the second wave the continent witnessed at the start of 2021.

The Ebola outbreak that emerged in Guinea in mid-February was declared over today. It was the first time the disease resurfaced in the country since the deadly outbreak in West Africa that ended in 2016.

COVID-19 cases in Africa are surging by over 20% week-on-week as the continent's third wave gains pace and nears the first wave peak of more than 120 000 weekly cases recorded in July 2020, new data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows. 

Just half of the blood needed for transfusion each year in the African region is collected, leaving many facing life-threatening shortages. The COVID-19 pandemic has further worsened the shortfall, with donations dropping by 17% over the past year.

Blood donation has fallen by 17% in the African region in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused widespread disruptions to key health services, lives and livelihoods.

Ethiopia today officially launched a preventive oral cholera vaccination campaign targeting 2 million people aged 1 year and above in Tigray region in the north of the country to avert a potential outbreak

Angola has reached the milestone of more than one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered after receiving the first doses from COVAX, a partnership between Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI )and WHO, which aims to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines against COVID-19, worldwide.

As COVID-19 cases in Africa rise for the third week running and vaccines are increasingly scarce, 47 of Africa’s 54 countries—nearly 90%—are set to miss the September target of vaccinating 10% of their people unless Africa receives 225 million more doses.

As the risk of a surge in COVID-19 cases increases, African countries must urgently boost critical care capacity to prevent health facilities from being overwhelmed. This comes as vaccine shipments to the continent grind to a near halt.

Africa needs at least 20 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the next six weeks to get second doses to all who received a first dose within the 8—12-week interval between doses recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).