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
Let's show compassion to baby Asli

Her story is heartbreaking not only because she is fighting for her life at such a tender age, but because her parents have spent months navigating a medical journey filled with uncertainty, delays, and rising fear.What began as something that seemed as simple as jaundice has escalated into a life-threatening condition that now requires an urgent liver transplant.For Asli’s parents, the reality is devastating. They are not asking for luxuries...

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