Since the introduction of a two-year project funded by the European Union about four months ago, there has been a rise in COVID-19 vaccination coverage in some of the most vulnerable humanitarian settings in Africa. At the beginning of 2022, the COVID-19 vaccination rate in about 16 participating countries was below 5 percent, but currently, the rate has risen to almost 30 percent among 14 of the 16 countries whose data was ready in January 2023. This percent is considered the continent’s average.
The African countries participating in the E16 million grant project of the European Union include Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Cameroon, Chad, Guinea, Madagascar, Mozambique, Niger, South Sudan and Tanzania. National health workers who have undergone training by WHO experts have been ensuring administration of vaccines in urban areas, refugees and displacement camps, workplaces, remote villages, public spaces and many other places to increase the number of vaccinated people.
80% of the Liberian population has been fully vaccinated.
Daré Rabiou, regional director of public health, population and social affairs in Maradi, Niger, states that they do not just sit and wait for people to come to the vaccination sites. They visit the rural areas to ensure vaccination of the rural population without them having to travel and leave their precious field works behind. A nurse at a health center in Kouroungoussao, Rachida Ibrahim, added that health workers vaccinate people against COVID-19 in the morning after which they head into villages to vaccinate people when there’s no one left to vaccinate in the health center.
As a matter of fact, some of the target countries among the 16 participating countries now have an higher rate of fully vaccinated people than Africa’s average. These countries are Nigeria, Somalia, the Central African Republic, Liberia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Guinea. In Liberia, about 80 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated with the help of health authorities and WHO staff who worked together with community mobilizers on outreach strategies which included vaccination campaigns in outdoor markets.
Vaccination campaigns helped increase the coverage rates of countries.
A community mobilizer in Liberia, Jerry Barway, explained how he went from house to house in a community, meeting and emphasizing the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine to members of every household. Also, in Somalia, over 40 percent of the people were fully vaccinated at the end of 2022. Among this set of people included, refugees, nomads, and people who lived in displacement camps, mostly regarded as the hardest to reach communities. Currently, project teams have fully vaccinated close to half of the internally displaced people in Somalia.
From the beginning of the project, focus has been placed on the most vulnerable such as older people, health workers and people living through humanitarian crises. According to project data, nine of the participating countries has 56 percent of people living in refugees and displacement camps and their host communities fully vaccinated. After vaccination campaigns that were conducted from September to December 2022, many countries had a rise in their coverage rates. In Cameroon, the number of vaccinated people increased after a mass-vaccination campaign in November 2022.
Number of trained health workers has increased from 130,000 to 1.5M.
Additionally, Mozambique has also has a success story concerning the COVID vaccination as almost two-thirds of its population has received full vaccination. Regarding the health workers, there was a rise in the number of health workers trained for administration of COVID-19 vaccines from about 130,000 to over 1.5 million at the end of January 2023. In late 2022, there was a deployment of about 1000 health workers in South Sudan for the sake of raising the COVID-19 vaccination coverage rate from one of the lowest in the world to about 20 percent.
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COVID-19 vaccine coverage in Africa – 16 African countries are sponsored by an EU grant project for vaccine coverage. – Express your point of view.
The vaccine has been able to get to as many persons as it should. Among the 16 participating nations, some of the target countries now have a completely immunized population rate that is greater than the norm for Africa.
The corona virus vaccine has not even gotten to half of the populace of Africa. Although the virus has give down, there is still need for vaccination for everybody.
The vaccination has really progress within such period of time. If they maintain this momentum the whole participating country in the project will eventually get vaccinated.
Vaccination rates against COVID-19 have increased in some of Africa’s most at-risk humanitarian settings since the launch of the project sponsored by the European Union.
In order to increase the COVID-19 immunization coverage rate in South Sudan from one of the lowest in the world to roughly 20%, about 1000 health professionals were sent there.
The public has been immunised thanks to the efforts of health officials and WHO personnel who collaborated with community mobilizers on outreach tactics that included immunization campaigns in outdoor marketplaces.
Individuals do not simply wait for people to show up at the immunization stations; they are actively engaged in other activities.
They travel to the rural areas to ensure that the population there is vaccinated, sparing the villagers the inconvenience of having to travel and leaving their valuable field works behind.
When the health facility has reached its vaccination capacity in the morning, health professionals provide the COVID-19 vaccine to those who remain and then travel to other communities to administer the vaccine to the remaining residents.
The COVID-19 situation has really change lots of things around the world and EU really tried in providing support to less privileged country and mostly African countries.
WHO staff members collaborated with community mobilizers to develop initiatives for community outreach, some of which included immunization programs held in outdoor marketplaces.
Since the commencement of the EU-funded project, the number of people in Africa who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the most vulnerable humanitarian circumstances has increased.
In such a short amount of time, the vaccination program has made remarkable strides. Assuming current progress rates, the entire country taking part in the programme will be immunized before too long.
The virus is still out there. We should all stay safe target to ensure people get vaccinated should stay in continuance. Necessary supports should be given to the health workers and bodies involved to ensure the accomplishment of the mission
16 African countries are sponsored by an EU grant project for vaccine coverage. COVID-19 did not really affected Africa
The virus is down and not spreading much but the vaccine need to continue flow across the country some part in Africa haven’t gotten the vaccine and everyone must get vaccinated
Within that time, vaccine progress has been significant. They will eventually be able to immunize every participant nation if they keep up this speed.
The EU grant project for vaccine coverage in which 16 African countries were sponsored was a successful one because so many people were vaccinated after the exercise. I know more people will be vaccinated.
The training exercises carried out in which 16 African countries was sponsored by the EU grant project for vaccine coverage as yielded a positive result as more people were vaccinated in Africa. We now have more trained health care givers in Africa for COVID-19 vaccination.