Bishaw T. COVID -19 Pandemic - Increasing the African Access to Vaccination (Editorial.). SEEJPH 2020, posted: 24 July 2021. DOI: 10.11576/seejph-4608 P a g e 1 | 5 EDITORIAL COVID -19 Pandemic - Increasing the African Access to Vaccination A Strategy to Curb the Global Spread of Infection Tewabech Bishaw1 Member of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission Africa Task Force, June 30, 2021 1) African Federation of Public Health Association –WFPHA; Hon. Ass Prof. Public Health, Jimma University Ethiopia; Alliance for Brain Gain and Innovative Develop- ment, MD, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. E-mail: bishawtewabech@yahoo.com Corresponding author: Dr. Tewabech Bishaw, BSc.PH; Hlt Ed. DIP, MPH, Dr. HSc; Address: African Federation of Public Health Association –WFPHA; Hon. Ass Prof. Public Health, Jimma University Ethiopia; Alliance for Brain Gain and Innovative Development, MD, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; E-mail: bishawtewabech@yahoo.com mailto:bishawtewabech@yahoo.com mailto:bishawtewabech@yahoo.com Bishaw T. COVID -19 Pandemic - Increasing the African Access to Vaccination (Editorial.). SEEJPH 2020, posted: 24 July 2021. DOI: 10.11576/seejph-4608 P a g e 2 | 5 Africa recorded the first case of COVID-19 on February 14, 2020, a global pandemic, the response to which continues to challenge known public health measures to effectively and sustainably curb the spread and magni- tude of the epidemic. Early in the epidemic, responses in most African countries were led by national Governments. National emergen- cies were declared, and systems for multisec- toral response were put in place. Strength- ened Ministries of Health remained responsi- ble for guiding and coordinating national and subnational level responses. Human, finan- cial and material resources were leveraged and mobilized to equip National Public Health Institutes and other national entities to ensure health workforce training, strengthen diagnostic capabilities, public information, and disease surveillance systems, including expansion of non-pharmaceutical interven- tions (NPIs). Over the last two years, the un- precedented social, economic, and political impact of COVID-19 negatively affected many countries. School closures, negative impact on businesses, reduced household in- come, increased inflation, and logistics re- straints (global, regional, and national level) created significant blows to the life of mil- lions of Africans. The pandemic also dis- rupted social activities, including banning re- ligious gatherings and other social events dis- rupting the life of communities. The COVID- 19 pandemic is expected to have devastating health and socioeconomic consequences in many countries in Africa, partly because of weak health systems plagued with inadequate surveillance and laboratory capacities. Addi- tionally, insufficient health workforce to ef- fectively respond to the pandemic and the lack of vaccines could worsen the situation further. The challenge for many African countries remains to strike a balance between the gains on COVID-19 prevention, manage- ment, and control with impacts on essential health services and its bearing on other non- health impacts (social, economic, and politi- cal). Cognizant of this and as COVID-19 is expected to remain a public health threat for the foreseeable future and the rapidly chang- ing epidemiology of COVID-19 variants, many countries are putting in place surveil- lance systems. These are expected to help monitor status that could guide decision- making in emergency preparedness and re- sponse by implementing effective mitigating strategies. In this regard, the African Center for the Prevention and Control of Communi- cable Diseases - the African CDC, a newly established Center for Disease Control under the African Union (AU). According to re- ports by the African CDC it is playing an es- sential role in supporting African countries: Training in emergency management and providing technical assistance and technol- ogy transfer for establishing disease surveil- lance systems at a continental level. Such new procedures are intended to link with na- tional systems to identify potential global health threats to prepare and respond effec- tively. Through alliances with US CDC, aca- demia, scientific organizations, and other partners, Africa CDC developed and released training to address priority national response needs; as a result, COVID-19 laboratory test- ing capacity grew from two countries early in the outbreak to all 55 AU member states by August 2020. COVID-19 pandemic remains a major concern at the continental and coun- try levels. Targeting high-risk populations and improving early diagnosis and treatment capacity are strategic approaches used to con- trol rapidly increasing mortality rates. A new norm of integration of COVID-19 services within the essential health services system would reduce morbidity and mortality that are directly and indirectly linked to COVID- 19. However, with its weak health infrastruc- ture and resources, the strategy of choice to combat the pandemic in Africa remains early prevention of the spread in communities. Key Bishaw T. COVID -19 Pandemic - Increasing the African Access to Vaccination (Editorial.). SEEJPH 2020, posted: 24 July 2021. DOI: 10.11576/seejph-4608 P a g e 3 | 5 to this has been the efforts by all countries to implement Non-Pharmaceutical Interven- tions (NPIs) through increased public aware- ness and strict adherence to the NPI norms and standards until vaccines are made acces- sible to the population. Nonetheless, due to various socio-cultural and related factors, sustained adherence to the NPI standards by populations in most African communities has increasingly become difficult. Hence to com- bat the spread of infection, urgently calls for accessibility of vaccines to a reasonable pro- portion of the population in high-risk coun- tries and communities. Factors including the socio-political-economy of vaccine availabil- ity to countries in Africa become both a global public health concern and an ethical consideration. While different companies in different countries produce vaccines, actual availability to countries in Africa has become increasingly difficult, calling for more active international solidarity. According to the re- cent appeal by the Lancet COVID-19 Com- mission Taskforce for Africa, the continent is currently experiencing the third and deadliest wave of the COVID-19 epidemic. Despite Africa’s support to COVAX, Africa has not been supplied with the required vac- cines so far. While the US now has 46% of its population fully vaccinated as of June 2021, and the EU has 31 % of its population covered, Africa has only1.2% of its popula- tion fully vaccinated. In total, Africa has re- ceived just 1.6% of the vaccine doses admin- istered worldwide, only 49 million doses out of the 2.9 billion doses worldwide. One could safely conclude that the global fight to curb the spread of COVID-19 could only be real- ized with equitable global access to the vac- cine. Vaccine coverage in Africa will benefit the entire global community. Would you please let me know any advice you may have on how to go about getting this very urgently needed vaccine to the needy pop- ulations in Africa? Urgent Appeal for 300 Million Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines for Africa. The Lan- cet COVID-19 Commission Africa Task Force June 30, 2021: Bishaw T. COVID -19 Pandemic - Increasing the African Access to Vaccination (Editorial.). SEEJPH 2020, posted: 24 July 2021. DOI: 10.11576/seejph-4608 P a g e 4 | 5 Urgent Appeal for 300 Million Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines for Africa The Lancet COVID-19 Commission Africa Task Force June 30, 2021 On behalf of the people of Africa, we appeal urgently to the vaccine-producing nations for emergency donations and shipments of at least 300 million doses of vaccines to enable every country in Africa to fully immunize at least 20 percent of its adult population by end of August 2021.1 Africa is currently experiencing the third and deadliest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by the highly contagious Delta Variant that was responsible for the recent devastating surge of disease and deaths in India. But Africa lacks vaccine protection. It has the lowest vac- cine coverage in the world, having received just 1.6 percent of the vaccine doses administered worldwide until June 26 (49 million doses out of 2.9 billion doses worldwide). While the U.S. now has 46 percent of its population fully vaccinated (as of June 30), the Euro- pean Union has about 33 percent, China around 40 percent, and Russia around 12 percent, Africa has only 1.1 percent of the population fully vaccinated. In absolute numbers, the US and Euro- pean Union have fully vaccinated 299 million individuals compared with just 15 million in all of Africa, despite an African population (1.34 billion) that is 73 percent larger than the combined population of the US and European Union (776 million). Another 20 million Africans have re- ceived one dose. We note that the scale of current production worldwide makes it now feasible to provide Africa with 300 million doses in the next 9 weeks on an urgent and expedited basis. We also note that the US has reached a near saturation in vaccine uptake, meaning that US-based production is now available for shipments to the rest of the world. We emphasize that vaccine coverage in Africa is not only for the benefit of Africa, but for the entire globe. Cases of COVID-19 spill across national borders, as do instability and suf- fering from unabated epidemics. Moreover, in regions with surging infections, there are greater opportunities for the emergence of new and dangerous variants of the virus, as has already hap- pened on several occasions. 1We assume that 300 million doses would enable 270 million doses successfully administered. Of those, 20 million would constitute the second dose of the current partially immunized individuals, and 250 million doses would be for individuals not yet immunized, resulting in an additional 125 million fully immunized individuals. In total, 160 mil- lion Africans would be fully immunized, accounting for 20 percent of the 800 million population aged 15 and over. In addition to the provision of vaccines, the international community should provide urgent fi- nancial and technical support to the Africa CDC and to national COVID-19 control programs to support non-pharmaceutical interventions, disease surveillance, diagnostics, vaccination infrastructure for cold chain and vaccination stations, data management systems, and genomic Bishaw T. COVID -19 Pandemic - Increasing the African Access to Vaccination (Editorial.). SEEJPH 2020, posted: 24 July 2021. DOI: 10.11576/seejph-4608 P a g e 5 | 5 surveillance of breakthrough infections. Several partner countries have existing programs in Af- rica to support infectious disease control efforts (e.g., for HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis). Such programs should be provided with supplemental funding to enable them to extend coverage of COVID-19 control, including the rapid scale-up of vaccination programs. Members of the Africa Task Force of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission: Prof. Salim S. Abdool Karim, Co‐Chair of the Africa Task Force, Caprisa Professor for Global Health in Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health Prof. Miriam Khamadi Were, Co‐Chair of the Africa Task Force, Vice Chair, The Champions of AIDS-Free Generation Kenya Dr. Muhammad Pate, Co‐Chair of the Africa Task Force, Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population, The World Bank Dr. Naphtali Agata, Chair of KEMRI Board of Management; Health Sector Consultant at Japan International Cooperation Agency Dr. Gordon Awandare, Director of West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens Prof. Yanis Ben Amor, Executive Director, Center for Sustainable Development in the Earth In- stitute; Assistant Professor of Global Health and Microbiological Sciences | Secretariat of the Lancet COVID‐19 Commission: yba2101@columbia.edu Dr. Tewabech Bishaw, Founder and Managing Director of Alliance for Brain‐Gain and Innova- tive Development (ABIDE Prof. Abderrahmane Maaroufi, Director of the Institut Pasteur Maroc (National Public Health In- stitute) Dr. John N. Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Francis Omaswa, Executive Director, African Center for Global Health and Social Transfor- mation Prof. Amadou Sall, Director of the Institut Pasteur Senegal Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Chair of the Lancet COVID‐19 Commission; University Professor and Di- rector of the Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University, and President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network Dr. Michel Sidibe, African Union Special Envoy for the African Medicines Agency (AMA); for- mer Minister of Health and Social Affairs for Mali and Executive Director of UNAIDS, former Under-Secretary‐General of the United Nations © 2021 Bishaw et al.; This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. mailto:yba2101@columbia.edu