Vaccine shortages and surging cases: A COVID-19 Africa snapshot*

Everyday struggle: A motorcyclist passes a COVID-19 awareness campaign message in Kampala, Uganda PIC: TNH
Everyday struggle: A motorcyclist passes a COVID-19 awareness campaign message in Kampala, Uganda PIC: TNH

A “third wave” of COVID-19 cases is filling hospital beds, exhausting oxygen stocks, and testing already overloaded health staff in the hardest-hit African countries.

Continent-wide, recorded infections are at over six million, with more than 153,000 official deaths. The highly transmissible Delta variant is now prevalent in 16 countries, and is surging through unvaccinated populations.

“The worst is yet to come,” Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) regional director for Africa, has warned. “The end to this precipitous rise is still weeks away.”

Editor's Comment
The Boko-led administration has to tread carefully

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