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WHO says syringe shortfall is threatening Africa’s Covid vaccine drive.
Africa’s battle to inoculate individuals in opposition to Covid-19 dangers being hobbled by a scarcity of syringes simply as provides of vaccines flood into the continent, the World Well being Organisation (WHO) mentioned on Thursday.
UNICEF, the United Nation’s fund for kids, is predicting an “imminent shortfall” of as much as 2.2 billion of the single-use syringes used to provide jabs, WHO Africa mentioned.
These embody auto-disable syringes used to manage Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid vaccine, it mentioned.
The scarcity will stay via not less than the primary quarter of subsequent yr, it mentioned in a weekly on-line briefing.
“Early subsequent yr, Covid-19 vaccines will begin pouring into Africa, however a shortage of syringes might paralyse progress,” mentioned Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.
“Drastic measures should be taken to spice up syringe manufacturing, quick.”
Until there’s a vital acceleration, solely 5 African nations, or beneath 10 p.c, will attain the goal of 40 p.c of populations vaccinated by the tip of the yr, the WHO mentioned.
These nations – Seychelles, Mauritius, Morocco, which have already reached this goal, in addition to Tunisia and Cape Verde – collectively account for simply 51 million of the continent’s 1.2 billion inhabitants.
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