{"id":75668,"date":"2021-06-22T08:10:06","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T12:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/?p=75668"},"modified":"2021-06-22T08:10:07","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T12:10:07","slug":"africa-enters-3rd-wave-equitable-vaccine-distribution-could-have-prevented-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/es\/blog\/2021\/06\/22\/africa-enters-3rd-wave-equitable-vaccine-distribution-could-have-prevented-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa Enters 3rd Wave; Equitable Vaccine Distribution Could Have Prevented It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Africa Entering Third Wave; Equitable Vaccine Distribution Could Have Prevented It<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 21 (EIRNS) — Africa has officially entered its third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in less than two years — having been struck with two waves in 2020, and now going into another Winter season — with little relief in sight, and new more-virulent variants to deal with. \u00abNew cases, continent-wide are up by nearly 30% in the past week, and deaths are up by 15%,\u00bb said WHO Africa Regional Director, Doctor Matshidiso Moeti, in her weekly press conference June 17. \u00abThe threat of a third wave is real and rising.\u00bb A meager 1% of the African population has been vaccinated, due to the massive logistics barriers involved, along with lack of vaccine accessibility and financing.
            The land-locked nation of Uganda is the latest crisis spot– as cases in the nation of nearly 50 million have shot up over 131% in the last week– with Namibia, DR Congo and Angola each showing lesser spikes. Many more of the victims are now younger, and a much higher percentage of them now require oxygen as part of treatment. Uganda’s hospitals are nearing their limits, and the nation has put out requests to neighboring states for emergency relief supplies.
            The other nation again in the unwanted spotlight is South Africa, where President Cyril Ramaphosa was forced to make a national address on June 15, as he once again declared a Level 3 lockdown. \u00abA third wave of infections is upon us,\u00bb the president said. In just the past two weeks, \u00abthe average number of daily new infections has doubled. Then, we were recording around 3,700 daily infections. Over the last seven days, we have recorded an average of 7,500 daily infections. Hospital admissions due to COVID-19 over the last 14 days are 59% higher than the preceding 14 days.\u00bb
            Again reflecting the increased threat from variants, Ramaphosa said, \u00abThe average number of people who die from COVID-19 each day has increased by 48% <\/em> from 535 two weeks ago to 791 in the past seven days.\u00bb <\/span> Although South Africa responded effectively and built emergency capacity last year, four of the most populous provinces are officially in a third wave, with Gauteng — the most urban and populous — accounting for nearly two-thirds of new cases in the past week. \u00abThe increase in infections … is now faster and steeper,\u00bb he said, and \u00abwithin a matter of days, it is likely that the number of new cases in Gauteng will surpass the peak of the second wave.\u00bb And Winter is just starting.
            South Africa’s vaccine rollout has been severely frustrated, first by the denial of AstraZeneca vaccines from India (as they faced their own crisis), and further by the complications around the Johnson & Johnson version, either one of which could have prevented this crisis. Vaccines are \u00abthe one statistic that provides a clear reason for hope,\u00bb Ramaphosa said. Last year (during the second wave), over hundreds of healthcare workers had become infected, as the \u00abSouth African variant\u00bb was first encountered. \u00abIn the last seven days,\u00bb he said, \u00abonly 64 health care workers have been infected.\u00bb
            By the end of the week, South Africa is expected to produce its own Johnson & Johnson vaccines. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa Entering Third Wave; Equitable Vaccine Distribution Could Have Prevented It June 21 (EIRNS) — Africa has officially entered its third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in less than two years — having been struck with two waves in 2020, and now going into another Winter season — with little relief in sight, and new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":75669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[643,520,505,702,634],"tags":[842],"class_list":["post-75668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid-19","category-updates-development","category-updates","category-healthcare-updates-development","category-healthcare","tag-lang-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75679,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75668\/revisions\/75679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}