Ending disease in Africa: status of immunization coverage in Africa as of the end of 2022
In 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted the health system and routine immunization in the African Region, leading to a significant decline in immunization coverage. It is well known that routine immunization programmes rely on functioning health facilities and stable communities.
In 2022, the African Region recorded 1 662 545 new COVID-19 cases and 18 248 new deaths compared to 5 348 384 new cases and 113 102 new deaths in 2021, a 69% decline in the number of new cases and 84% in the number of deaths. However, greater efforts were made to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake across the region, with the support of WHO and partners through the WHO Regional Office for Africa country support team initiative (CST) and the global COVID-19 vaccine delivery partnership (CoVDP). This intensification of COVID-19 vaccination rollout efforts probably helped to shift often limited resources away from routine immunization at a time when the region might have started to recover from the decline in routine immunization recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 18 July 2022, the 2022 revision of the WHO and UNICEF estimates of national immunization coverage (WUENIC) was published. This report summarizes the status of routine immunization in the African Region as of the end of 2022, in terms of immunization coverage, number, and percentage of un- and under-immunized children as per the 2022 WUENIC revision.
