The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Congo, says over 93,000 deaths of COVID-19 recorded in Africa.
In the update on its official twitter page on Friday, the UN health agency said Africa has more than 3.6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, 3.1 million recoveries and 82,000 deaths cumulatively.
In a statement on its website WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said the continent would take the first delivery of COVID-19 vaccine in February as the joint UN-led COVAX initiative aimed at starting shipping about 90 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Africa.
She said that the immunisation roll out would be the continent’s largest ever mass vaccination campaign.
Moeti, however, highlighted that the deployment was a “critical first step’’ to ensure countries access to vaccines.
“Africa has watched other regions start COVID-19 vaccination campaigns from the side-lines for too long. This planned roll-out is a critical first step to ensuring the continent gets equitable access to vaccines,’’ she said.
According to the health agency, the roll-out of the AstraZeneca/Oxford AZD1222 vaccine is subject to the vaccine being listed for emergency use by WHO, which is currently reviewing the vaccine and the outcome is expected soon.
