Addis Ababa, October 28, 2021: As the African continent continues to battle with the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), questions about COVID-19 becoming ‘endemic’ are rising among health experts and the population across the region.

For much of the past two years of the pandemic, the African Union, through Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), and the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) have been at the forefront and have led the fight against coronavirus by helping member states acquire and distribute vaccines. Each wave of the pandemic has disrupted economies and livelihoods, and led to the death of thousands. But it can be managed through public health and social measures (PHSM) i.e. washing hands with clean water, sanitizing, social distancing, as well as vaccination. 

Failure to eradicate the virus means that it may continue to circulate, leading to illness and possible deaths.

Health experts, with the Africa CDC being at the front in this fight, are worried about the low rates of vaccination and complacency about PHSM. 

“It will take us much longer to control Covid-19 on the continent than we previously thought because of the very limited rates of vaccination that we have. We have only successfully vaccinated 5.5% out of the 1.2 billion people on the African continent and that is not good a position of controlling and eliminating the virus. We are getting to a point where elimination or effective control of the virus is becoming more challenging because of the slow pace at which vaccination is occurring in Africa,” said Dr. John Nkengasong, the Director of the Africa CDC during a weekly news COVID-19 media conference on 28 October 2021.

“It’s everybody's responsibility to make sure that everyone is vaccinated against COVID-19. The community, the media together and the public health experts have a role to play.”

“We have been very loud and clear about the danger and the risk for the continent not getting appropriate access to vaccines, but we need to accelerate our efforts and at least try to vaccinate 70% of the African population by the end of next year so that we have a chance of controlling this pandemic,” he added.

COVID-19 UPDATE

To date, the highly contagious variants of the coronavirus continue to spread across the continent. As of October 28, 2021, a total of 8.4 million people had been infected with the virus in Africa. Of that, over 218,000 people had lost their lives, accounting for 4.4 percent of the cases reported globally.

"The continent is still going through a severe third wave. 82 percent of our member states are currently going through the third wave. Seven countries, i.e. Algeria, Benin, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Somalia, and Tunisia, are currently experiencing the fourth wave”, said Dr. John Nkengasong.

The Africa CDC is however, encouraged by the recent downward trend in the number of coronavirus COVID-19 cases registered across the region.

"Between the period of 18-24 October, a total of 31,000 new cases were reported across the continent, and this represents a 26 percent decrease in the number of new cases reported compared to the previous week."

“In terms of deaths recorded over the last week, 1322 deaths have been reported across the region compared to the previous week where we reported 1515 deaths.” 

"Over the four weeks between 27 September and 24 October, we have observed a 20 percent average decrease in new cases, and except for central Africa where we have observed a 7 percent average increase, we are pleased to see that there’s consistent decrease in other regions including 25 percent decrease in Southern Africa, 22 percent decrease in East Africa, 20 percent in West Africa, and 15 percent in North Africa,” said Dr. Nkengasong.

“As of 28^th October 2021, a total of 275 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been procured on the continent. Of that number, 188.5 million have been administered, which corresponds to 70% of the total supply available. A total of 5.58 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated and we continue to make little progress. We are very delighted to see some countries distinguishing themselves in the fight against,” added Dr. Nkengasong.

END

About Africa CDC

 Africa CDC is a specialized technical institution of the African Union that strengthens the capacity and capability of Africa’s public health institutions as well as partnerships to detect and respond quickly and effectively to disease threats and outbreaks, based on data-driven interventions and programmes. Learn more at: www.africacdc.org

For further information, please contact:

Mrs Wynne Musabayana | Head of Communication | Information and Communication Directorate | African Union Commission | E-mail: MusabayanaW@africa-union,org | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Edward Kalema | Information and Communication Directorate | African Union Commission | Email: KalemaE@africa-union.org | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Information and Communication Directorate, African Union Commission I E-mail: DIC@africa-union.org
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