About 90 per cent of African countries will miss a September target to vaccinate at least 10pc of their populations against Covid-19 as a third wave of the pandemic looms on the continent, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said.
Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said the continent required an extra 225 million doses to be able to vaccinate a tenth of its people by September this year.
"With vaccine stocks and shipments drying up, the continent's vaccination coverage for the first dose remains stuck at 2pc and at about 1pc in sub-Saharan Africa," Moeti told a weekly news briefing. "Vaccines have been proven to prevent cases and deaths, so countries that can, must urgently share Covid-19 vaccines. It's do or die on dose-sharing for Africa."
