On Sept. 16, 2021, as the COVAX Facility is forced to slash planned COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to Africa by around 150 million this year, the continent faces almost 500 million doses short of the global year-end target of fully vaccinating 40% of its population. This shortfall comes as Africa tops 8 million COVID-19 cases this week.   

With the cutback COVAX is now expected to deliver 470 million doses to Africa this year. These will be enough to vaccinate just 17% of the population, far below the 40% target. An additional 470 million doses are needed to reach the end-year target even if all planned shipments via COVAX, a multilateral initiative aimed at guaranteeing global access to lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines, and the African Union are delivered.

As export bans, challenges in boosting production at COVAX manufacturing sites and delays in filing for regulatory approvals for new vaccines constrain deliveries, COVAX has called for donor countries to share their supply schedules to give more clarity on deliveries.

COVAX has also called for countries with enough vaccines to give up their place in the queue for deliveries.Manufacturers must deliver to COVAX in line with firm commitments, and countries that are well-advanced with vaccinations must expand and accelerate donations, ensuring doses are available in larger, more predictable volumes and with longer shelf lives.

About 95 million more doses are set to arrive in Africa via COVAX throughout September, which will be the largest shipment the continent receives for any month so far. Yet even as deliveries pick up, Africa has been able to fully vaccinate just 50 million people, or 3.6% of its people.

Around 2% of the nearly 6 billion doses given globally have been administered in Africa. The European Union and the United Kingdom have vaccinated over 60% of their people and high-income countries have administered 48 times more doses per person than low-income nations. 

WHO is ramping up support to African countries to identify and address gaps in their COVID-19 vaccine rollouts. WHO has assisted 15 African countries in conducting intra-action reviews, which analyse all aspects of their vaccination campaigns and offer recommendations for improvements. The reviews have shown that vaccine supply security and uncertainty around deliveries has been a major impediment for many African countries.