WHO Says Africa to Receive Vaccine Doses in March
2021-01-24
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1Many African countries are expected to receive their first COVID-19 vaccine doses in March from the United Nations' COVAX effort.
2The World Health Organization's Africa director recently announced the plan.
3The statement comes as deaths on the continent from the disease have been rising.
4COVAX is a plan from the WHO, the European Commission and France to vaccinate people in poor and middle-income countries against COVID-19.
5Matshidiso Moeti is the WHO Regional Director for Africa.
6She told reporters that a larger supply of the millions of doses from COVAX is expected by June.
7It is the second major vaccine announcement in one week for the African continent of 1.3 billion people.
8Last Wednesday, the leader of the African Union said 270 million doses came from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca through the Serum Institute of India.
9About 600 million doses are expected to be provided through the COVAX effort.
10Doses are expected to be given to countries based on population size and the severity of their health crises.
11Health workers will receive the doses first as thousands of them have been infected.
12African countries are now recording about 30,000 new virus cases each day compared to 18,000 during the first surge months ago.
13John Nkengasong is director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or Africa CDC.
14He has said that confirmed deaths from COVID-19 jumped 21 percent in one week in Africa, with more than 5,400 reported.
15The continent has more than 3.1 million confirmed virus cases, including more than 75,000 deaths.
16This second wave of infections is "hitting very, very hard," said Nkengasong.
17The case death rate in Africa is now 2.4 percent, which is above the world rate of 2.2 percent.
18Around 20 African countries have case death rates above the world average.
19They include Sudan at 6 percent, Egypt at 5 percent, Mali at 3.9 percent, Congo at 3.1 percent and South Africa at 2.8 percent.
20South Africa is one of the world's hardest-hit countries.
21A highly infectious variant of the virus now makes up most new cases.
22The country has more than 1.2 million cases including 35,000 deaths.
23The WHO's Moeti said gene sequencing tests have found the new variant in three other countries: Botswana, Gambia and Zambia.
24The importance of a strong genomics surveillance system cannot be overstated, Moeti said.
25Africa CDC director Nkengasong said the fast-growing number of cases "means we run into short supplies of oxygen."
26He has been seeking to increase the supply to Africa, where medical oxygen is not easy to get.
27Vaccine doses from the COVAX effort are expected to reach 20 percent of the population in Africa.
28Officials are pushing to secure enough doses to meet the goal of vaccinating the 60 percent needed to achieve herd immunity against the virus.
29The vaccinations "will require a very massive historic campaign" of a kind that the continent has never seen, Nkengasong said.
30There are already concerns about how African countries will be able to store vaccines that require extremely cold storage.
31Nkengasong said African governments are being advised to get deep freezers to start the vaccinations at hospitals in large cities.
32They are advised to then bring people to those points to receive the vaccines.
33I'm Alice Bryant.
1Many African countries are expected to receive their first COVID-19 vaccine doses in March from the United Nations' COVAX effort. 2The World Health Organization's Africa director recently announced the plan. The statement comes as deaths on the continent from the disease have been rising. 3COVAX is a plan from the WHO, the European Commission and France to vaccinate people in poor and middle-income countries against COVID-19. 4Matshidiso Moeti is the WHO Regional Director for Africa. She told reporters that a larger supply of the millions of doses from COVAX is expected by June. It is the second major vaccine announcement in one week for the African continent of 1.3 billion people. 5Last Wednesday, the leader of the African Union said 270 million doses came from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca through the Serum Institute of India. 6About 600 million doses are expected to be provided through the COVAX effort. Doses are expected to be given to countries based on population size and the severity of their health crises. Health workers will receive the doses first as thousands of them have been infected. 7African countries are now recording about 30,000 new virus cases each day compared to 18,000 during the first surge months ago. 8John Nkengasong is director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or Africa CDC. He has said that confirmed deaths from COVID-19 jumped 21 percent in one week in Africa, with more than 5,400 reported. The continent has more than 3.1 million confirmed virus cases, including more than 75,000 deaths. 9This second wave of infections is "hitting very, very hard," said Nkengasong. 10The case death rate in Africa is now 2.4 percent, which is above the world rate of 2.2 percent. Around 20 African countries have case death rates above the world average. They include Sudan at 6 percent, Egypt at 5 percent, Mali at 3.9 percent, Congo at 3.1 percent and South Africa at 2.8 percent. 11South Africa is one of the world's hardest-hit countries. A highly infectious variant of the virus now makes up most new cases. The country has more than 1.2 million cases including 35,000 deaths. 12The WHO's Moeti said gene sequencing tests have found the new variant in three other countries: Botswana, Gambia and Zambia. The importance of a strong genomics surveillance system cannot be overstated, Moeti said. 13Africa CDC director Nkengasong said the fast-growing number of cases "means we run into short supplies of oxygen." He has been seeking to increase the supply to Africa, where medical oxygen is not easy to get. 14Vaccine doses from the COVAX effort are expected to reach 20 percent of the population in Africa. Officials are pushing to secure enough doses to meet the goal of vaccinating the 60 percent needed to achieve herd immunity against the virus. 15The vaccinations "will require a very massive historic campaign" of a kind that the continent has never seen, Nkengasong said. 16There are already concerns about how African countries will be able to store vaccines that require extremely cold storage. 17Nkengasong said African governments are being advised to get deep freezers to start the vaccinations at hospitals in large cities. They are advised to then bring people to those points to receive the vaccines. 18I'm Alice Bryant. 19The Associated Press reported this story. Alice Bryant adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor. 20_______________________________________________________________ 21Words in This Story 22dose - n. the amount of a medicine or treatment needed to treat a disease 23income -n. money that is earned from work 24surge -n. a fast increase in something 25variant -n. something different in some way from others of the same kind 26gene sequencing -n. a process that studies the order of DNA molecules to find out if organisms are related and to what extent 27surveillance -n. to watch something very closely, especially to look for evidence of crime or disease 28herd immunity -n. when enough people in a population can no longer be infected with a virus thereby protecting the rest of the people who are not immune from it