Cases surpass 7.5m in Africa amid impressive vaccine rollout

The number of COVID-19 infection cases in Africa surpassed 7.5 million on Sunday - a 27,995 increase from the previous day - according to data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while vaccination rollout is progressing at an accelerated rate in the continent.

Death cases on the other hand, reached 188,654, an increase of 533 compared with the Saturday's figure.

So far, eight countries – Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa and Zambia - have reported more than 200,000 COVID-19 infection cases.

South Africa is the most affected country with over 2.4 million infection cases, followed by Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia and Libya. As of Sunday, South Africa had recorded the highest number of fatalities, having recorded 79,251.

COVID-19 variants, specifically the highly transmissible Delta variant, have been attributed to the increasing number of infections and death cases across Africa.

However, while the total cumulative caseloads are increasing, the number of new cases has significantly been decreasing over the past two weeks.

According to the World Health Organization, in the week ending Aug 15, Africa recorded over 244, 000 new cases, translating to an 11 percent drop from the previous week and a second straight week of declining cases.

On Thursday, the UN agency expressed concerns over the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the West African region, whose several countries are also grappling with Ebola, Cholera and Marburg virus disease outbreaks.

The UN agency said the outbreaks threaten to further strain the already stretched emergency response capacity in the region.

Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea and Nigeria are not only among the nine West Africa countries that are experiencing COVID-19 resurgence, but are also grappling with other outbreaks. In total, 23 countries across Africa are experiencing COVID-19 resurgence.

In the previous four weeks, the COVID-19 fatalities in West Africa increased by 193 percent from 348 to 1,018 in the week ending Aug 15.

Despite the surging infection cases, the rollout of vaccines across Africa is impressive, even though vaccination rate in the continent is still low compared with other parts of the world.

So far, 4.4 percent of Africa's population have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine while 1.9 percent of the total population have been fully vaccinated, according to Africa CDC.

Of the 123.4 million COVID-19 doses supplied to Africa, 86.6 million doses have been administered so far.

During the first 18 days of August, the COVAX facility delivered almost 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa, nine times what was delivered in the same period in July, according to WHO data.

The African Union, on the other hand, has delivered 1.5 million doses to nine countries.

The WHO said since June, the number of doses administered per 100 people in sub-Saharan Africa has almost tripled from 1.2 per 100 people to 3.4 per 100 people.

Africa is expecting to receive 620 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines via COVAX by the end of the year.

With a range of available financing opportunities, Africa hopes to continue with its vaccination campaign to realize its target of vaccinating large percentage of its population to achieve herd immunity.

On June 30, the World Bank committed to provide over $4 billion to purchase and deploy vaccines to 51 developing countries, of which 25 are in Africa.

Gavi, the vaccine alliance, on the other hand approved a further $775 million to deliver vaccines to low-income countries.

Despite the impressive vaccine rollout across the continent, both the WHO Regional Office for Africa and Africa CDC have been urging Africans to continue observing health protocols of wearing masks, keeping a safe distance and washing hands with soap and water to curb the spread of COVID-19.