Omicron: Nigeria misses 40% year-end vaccination target
Nigeria have missed the 40 percent vaccination target set by the World Health Assembly, the highest health policy making body for countries following the failure to vaccinate at least 40 percent of the total eligible citizen by end of 2021.
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This is according to a data released by the World Health Organization.
This is as the country also did not make the list of African countries that have vaccinated at least 10 percent.
The Africa regional office for the WHO on Tuesday during the end of year press briefing on Tuesday announced that Africa was officially in the fourth wave with more waves imminent due to poor vaccination coverage.
“Africa is now officially in the fourth wave of the pandemic which is partly due to the omicron variant. There has been an 83 percent surge in new cases on the continent compared to the previous weeks. This is the fastest surge recorded since May last year. We can’t afford to drop our guards. We are entering into the holiday season with vaccine coverage still disappointingly low and with this, more waves are imminent , says Dr. Moeti Matshidioso, the WHO regional director for Africa.
“As things stand, predictions are that if Africa continues like this, Africa may not reach the 70 percent vaccination target until August 2024. Just six countries have managed to meet the target of fully vaccinating 40 percent of the citizens with only 20 managing to achieve a 10 percent vaccination coverage.
“We are seeing increases in some countries in West Africa. It is of concern that these increases are happening before the people start moving, travelling for the festive season. This means we really need to be preparing in those places to make sure that things do not get out of control. Indeed if it is necessary, it might be useful to impose local restrictions most in terms of gatherings,” Mathshidioso added.
In the data shared by the global health body , the countries that have reached the ten percent vaccination target were listed as follows; Algeria, Botswana, Carpe Verde, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, South Africa, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Egypt and Liberia.
WHO also added that six out of those countries namely Botswana, Carpe Verde, Mauritius, Morocco, Seychelles and Tunisia have achieved 40 percent vaccination target.
On the countries that have not reached the target, it stated Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Tanzania, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, Senegal, Somalia, Uganda, Angola, Cameroun among others.
MTO/Punch
