WHO Encourages Africa to Use AstraZeneca Vaccine despite Variant
The World Health Organization (WHO) encourages the African countries to use the Oxford – AstraZeneca vaccine against coronavirus even in countries reporting cases of the virus variant.
Gathogo Wanjiru 
The World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for Africa said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, “While a vaccine that protects against all forms of Covid-19 illness is our biggest hope, preventing severe cases and hospitalizations which overwhelm hospitals and health systems is crucial.”
According to the WHO Regional Director Dr. Moeti, the second Covid-19 wave was more deadly than the first one. According to the data released by WHO, the number of deaths increased by 40% in the last 28 days as compared to the previous 28 days.
The increased number of deaths saw the continent leaving the health workers and health care systems “dangerously overstretched.”
The continent is also suffering from B.1351 variant that was detected in South Africa and it has now been detected in seven more African countries i.e. Botswana, Kenya, Ghana, Comoros, Zambia, and Mozambique.
Covid-19 vaccines have not yet been rolled out in Africa but World Health Organization (WHO) expects to substantively roll out the vaccines in March 2021.
