Rabat – The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday raised concerns about Africa’s low vaccination rate, during a meeting about the evolution of the pandemic across the world.
During the 11th meeting of the Emergency Committee for COVID-19, WHO’s Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus raised concerns about the low rate of vaccination in many countries and across Africa.
“Even as some high-income countries now roll out fourth doses for their populations, one third of the world’s population is yet to receive a single dose, including 83% of the population of Africa,” Ghebreyesus said.
As many countries around the globe failed to achieve the UN goal to vaccinate 40% of their populations by the end of 2021, the global health institute has set a new target for countries to vaccinate 70% of their populations by mid-2022.
This isn’t the first time the WHO has raised concerns over low vaccination rates. In February Ghebreyesus said that 116 countries are far from reaching vaccine goals.
The WHO has repeatedly warned that the acute shortage of vaccine doses and the low testing rates in many countries could lead to the emergence of new variants.
Low vaccination coverage and massive increases in cases has caused deaths to surge in many countries.
The Director General highlighted that dozens of health workers and others at the frontline of the fight against COVID-19 are still unvaccinated.
While most African countries face many challenges to vaccinate their populations, Morocco is among the leading countries in the continent, and one of those that vaccinated 40% of their population by the end of 2021.
During Monday’s meeting, WHO discussed a number other issues including its roadmap to curb the spread of COVID.
On WHO’s “Strategic Preparedness, Readiness and Response Plan for COVID-19,” Ghebreyesus said that if the plan is implemented rapidly and consistently at all levels, it will enable the ending of the global emergency of COVID-19.
As for the now dominant Omicron variant, the WHO said it has in recent weeks seen a downward trend in terms of infections and deaths, compared to the first quarter of 2022 where it reached its peak globally.
The WHO said in a statement last week that the number of COVID-19 cases decreased by 16% during the week of March 28 to April 3, compared to the previous week.
The number of new weekly deaths also fell sharply by 43% in the same period compared to a week earlier.
The Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations (IHR) meets every three months to issue temporary recommendations to state parties.
