A COVID-19 Africa snapshot*

miniscule. In central Kogi State, where the governor has denied the existence of COVID-19 and opposes vaccinations, only five cases have been reported. But Nigeria’s puny testing capacity has missed what antibody surveys have revealed: In some parts of the country a fifth of people could have been infected with the virus.

Nigeria has received just one shipment of four million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine via the COVAX facility. In common with most countries, a limited roll-out has prioritised health workers and the vulnerable. New supplies are being negotiated by the government to help reach the general population.

Here, disinformation is proving one of the biggest obstacles. The latest viral TikTok is of a man claiming his vaccine jab electrified his arm.

“As ridiculous as this and other conspiracy theories are, vulnerable people believe them and are therefore continuing to take the risk of avoiding COVID-19 vaccination,” Faisal Shuaib, head of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, said at a press conference last week.

South Africa: Policy blunders and a ‘vaccine quagmire’ COVID cases: 2,206,781

Deaths: 65,142

Vaccinations: 4,236,718

Population vaccinated: 2.5 percent (fully), 4.28 percent (partly)

A rise in COVID cases, centred on the commercial hub of Gauteng, is straining South Africa’s already overburdened health service. Hospitalisations are expected to crest only by the end of the month.

The severity of the third wave has exposed a series of policy blunders that cumulatively have created what the country’s most prominent COVID-19 scientists have described as a “vaccine quagmire” – where a lack of a coherent strategy has left the country essentially unvaccinated, reliant on painful lockdowns to slow each new wave.

“[Around] five percent [of South Africans] are vaccinated,” virologist Francois Venter, one of the scientists critical of the government’s approach, told The New Humanitarian. “The surge of vaccinations we have seen in the last three or four weeks is not going to do diddly squat for the third wave.”

South Africa is administering about 170,000 vaccinations a day, short of its 300,000-a-day target, but the pace is picking up. It has managed to inoculate 480,000 health workers and 40% of those aged over 60. It has now extended the programme to the over-35s.

But with a slow roll-out and a fast-mutating virus, the vaccine is not a cure-all. Physiotherapist Kayla Majiet was amongst the frontline health workers vaccinated in March, but the initial “peace of mind” she felt has since waned. A “few” vaccinated colleagues in the private hospital where she works are still getting sick, “and that has changed my confidence in the vaccine. It feels the same as before.”

Uganda: ‘Patients who need treatment are not reaching us’ COVID cases: 88,194

Deaths: 2,164

Vaccinations: 1,058,084

Population vaccinated: 0.01 percent (fully), 1.16 percent (partly)

There has been a jump in hospitalisations – roughly 10 times higher than in May – as a result of the Delta variant. Cases in Uganda aren’t expected to peak until late July or early August, but there’s already a critical lack of oxygen and hospital beds.

The shortages extend to PPE. “It’s a very big challenge. There’s very few [PPE kits],” said one nurse working in an intensive care unit in the capital, Kampala. “At times you even use a mask for a week. If you don’t have the money to buy for yourself, then it becomes hard,” added the nurse, who asked that her name not be used.

The government announced a partial lockdown in June as cases began to rise. A two-month jail sentence has been imposed for flouting regulations, which include the mandatory wearing of face masks in public. “The patients [who need treatment] are not reaching us [as a result of the lockdown], and we are struggling in terms of [equipment] resources,” said Mukuzi Muhereza, the secretary-general of the Uganda Medical Association.

Uganda has so far received 1.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX facility. Almost a million more doses are expected by August, as well as a donation of 300,000 doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine. The government’s goal is to jab just under 22 million people over three years – roughly half the population. “The biggest problem now is unavailability of the vaccine,” said Muhereza. “We have countrywide stockouts and those eligible can’t get vaccinated.”

Refugees fall under the government’s vaccination plans. Uganda is sheltering 1.4 million people who have fled the region’s wars, the largest refugee population in Africa. So far, just under 4,000 have been inoculated, and the programme has been paused.

“We call on the international community to help Uganda increase access to COVID-19 vaccines and protect the lives of refugees and the communities hosting them,” said Rocco Nuri, a spokesperson for UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency.

Burundi took a lackadaisical approach when the pandemic first struck. Pre-election rallies drew thousands into jam-packed stadiums and WHO officials were declared personae non gratae.

Things changed when a new president came to power following the sudden death of Pierre Nkurunziza to what many suspect was

COVID-19: Mask wearing was made compulsory on public transport and night clubs and karaoke bars were closed.

In interviews with The New Humanitarian, frontline health workers expressed frustration in the government’s vaccination stance. One doctor at a private clinic said he travelled to a neighbouring country to get a vaccine that would enable him to work safely.

The doctor – who contracted COVID-19 last year – said he hoped the government would follow the lead of Tanzania, which has asked to join COVAX amid a pandemic policy shift following the March death of coronavirus-skeptic former president, John Magufuli.

“This is a big step because it will serve as a lesson for our government,” said the doctor, who asked not to be named. “I would advise the Burundian government to let health professionals get vaccinated. It would make them more stable and secure.”

Bujumbura paramedic Jean Marie, who did not want his surname published, said he would “feel safer” if vaccines were offered to health workers, while a nurse aide of 20 years who wanted to remain anonymous said they felt “insecure at work”.

Bus driver Adbul Karim was less fussed about getting jabbed: “If I try to see the situation, I don’t see the importance of the vaccine,” he said. “Countries that have vaccinated almost all of their populations continue to be confined [so] my question is “how important is the coronavirus vaccine when even the vaccinated are under lockdown?”

(The New Humanitarian)*Data was correct as at July 14, 2021