Low On Funds, African Countries Are Struggling To Vaccinate Its People Against COVID

When Ghana got 50,000 COVID vaccine doses from India in March, it realised the staff was less in number that had been trained to distribute them, as per a Reuters report.

It was still providing shots received in late February from COVAX and didn¡¯t have the capacity to expand, as per the head of the immunisation program.

Quartz

¡±We were in the middle of the first campaign,¡± Amponsa-Achiano said.

¡±How do you plan for 50,000 when you already are doing another campaign?¡± he added.

AFP

Several African countries that already face a shortage of affordable vaccines are being hit by the huge scale of the distribution challenge when they get the doses.

Funding issues

There are not enough masks due to funding issues which only adds to the problem.

While Africa has thus far been relatively unscathed by COVID-19, some experts fear stuttering rollouts could draw out the outbreak in the region, potentially leading to more deaths and economically damaging restrictions in a continent that is already the poorest in the world.

Benjamin Schreiber, COVAX coordinator at the U.N. children¡¯s agency UNICEF, said logistical problems could mount in the coming weeks and months as countries tried to get vaccines to their general populations.

¡±As we start rolling out bigger quantities, we are going to start seeing more issues,¡± Schreiber said.

¡±The gaps in the healthcare systems will be the gaps that hinder the rollouts,¡± he added. ¡±My worry is that we miss complete communities.¡±