Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Good morning and good afternoon to all the journalists and everyone participating in this press conference on the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccines.
I am very pleased to be joined by the Honourable Minister of Health of Malawi, Ms Khumbize Kandondo Chiponda and also the Honourable Minister of Health of Rwanda Dr Daniel Ngamije. Thank you so much for being with us today. We look forward very much to hearing from you about the situation, the progress, the success and the challenges in your countries, as examples of some of the work that governments and partners are doing in the Region. Welcome Ministers and thank you for being with us.
There are now around 3.6 million COVID-19 cases and sadly 93,000 lives have been lost on the African continent. From a peak in this second wave of almost 37,000 new cases reported on the 6th of January, in the past week we have seen an average of 18,000 new cases each day. While this decline is encouraging, we have to say it is too soon to declare that this trend will continue.
Sustained action by governments, other authorities and individuals to prevent the spread of COVID-19, remains vital. We are still seeing cases increasing in countries like Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique and Sierra Leone and some other countries.
In much-awaited news, the COVAX facility (which is the vaccine component of the ACT Accelerator) has informed African countries of the first allocations of the COVID-19 vaccines. Nearly 90 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine could start arriving on the continent later this month. This is subject to WHO listing the vaccine for emergency use. The review is ongoing, and its outcome is expected very soon.
These doses would help countries reach 3% of their populations in the first half of 2021, targeting the most-at-risk groups, especially frontline health workers. As production capacities increase, the COVAX facility is aiming to reach at least 20% of Africans, which will require delivery of up to 600 million doses during this year.
In addition, around 320,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been allocated to four African countries: Cabo Verde, Rwanda, South Africa and Tunisia. Deliveries are also expected later on in February. To access an initial limited volume of Pfizer vaccine, countries were invited to submit proposals. Thirteen African countries expressed an interest in participating in the initiative, and their proposals were evaluated based on current mortality rates, new cases and trends and capacities to deliver this vaccine, including to store it at minus 70 degrees Celsius.
I have to say that this was a challenging process as we know all countries want to start vaccinating their populations. The supplies were limited but we are glad that we will have a number of countries start and we look forward to working with the other countries to expand this vaccine delivery.
Africa has indeed watched other regions start COVID-19 vaccination campaigns a little bit from the side-lines for too long. This planned roll-out is a critical first step in ensuring that the continent gets equitable access to vaccines.
This COVAX announcement by WHO, Gavi and CEPI allows countries to fine-tune their planning for COVID-19 immunization campaigns.
We urge and are ready to support African nations to ramp up readiness and finalize their national vaccine deployment plans. Regulatory processes, cold chain systems and distribution plans need to be in place to ensure vaccines are safely expedited from ports of entry to delivery points. Planning for the vaccination campaigns, including putting in place strategies to engage communities will be critical. We cannot afford to waste a single dose of these vaccines.
We are also tracking information on the new variants, which are spreading in countries and we will keep doing so, so that we can continue to strengthen and adapt response measures.
I’d also like to update on the roll-out of antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests on the African continent. So far, with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Republic of Korea and other partners, more than 3 million RDTs have been delivered to African countries and more than 8.5 million are in the pipeline. These supplies will help to expand testing capacities and improve the turnaround time for results in order to enable rapid contact tracing and breaking of transmission chains.
Finally, today is World Cancer Day and more than one million Africans are diagnosed with different types of cancer every year. We have to recall these other public health problems in the Region and in the world even as we battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. In sub-Saharan Africa, around two out of five women who seek access to treatment for breast cancer, for example do not receive it, because they cannot afford it, or the service is not available close to where they live. We also know that the late diagnosis of cancer including cervical cancer still constitutes problems in our Region. This is why Universal Health Coverage is so important, and why at WHO, we are working with countries to attain UHC: to ensure that everyone can access the care they need, without suffering financial hardship and we are doing this at the same time that we are supporting countries to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. We cannot leave other health problems unattended to.
I look forward very much to our conversation. Again, welcome to the two Honourable Ministers and welcome again to our journalist colleagues and thank you once again for joining us.