Large parts of Africa may not get covid-19 vaccines for several years

By Peter Yeung

Anis Belghoul/AP/Shutterstock

Some African countries may not receive enough covid-19 vaccine doses to reach herd immunity for years to come, according to an internal report by a World Health Organization (WHO) initiative to coordinate vaccine roll-out.

Vaccinations aren’t likely to begin in Africa until mid-2021, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. It could take years to secure the doses needed to immunise 60 per cent of the continent’s 1.3 billion people, the threshold at which herd immunity may be achieved. In comparison, on 8 December, the UK, …