Grim milestone for continent

Africa has surpassed 100,000 confirmed deaths from COVID19 as the continent praised for its early response to the pandemic now struggles with a dangerous resurgence and medical oxygen often runs desperately short.

“We are more vulnerable than we thought,” said the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong. He worried that “we are beginning to normalize deaths,” while health workers are overwhelmed.

The 54nation continent of some 1.3 billion people has barely seen the arrival of largescale supplies of COVID19 vaccines, but a variant of the virus dominant in South Africa is already posing a challenge to vaccination efforts. Still, if doses are available, the continent should be able to vaccinate 35% to 40% of its population before the end of 2021 and 60% by the end of 2022, Nkengasong said.