Africa's Covid-19 Cases Fall by 23%, WHO Says

The World Health Organization's (WHO) regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti has said the number of new Covid-19 cases on the continent fell by 23 percent last week, the steepest drop in eight weeks since a peak in July 2021.

Moeti said that while those figures are good news and an indication the third wave of infections is on a "downward slide," variants of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, particularly the Delta variant, have sparked flare-ups, prolonging the "acute phase" of the third wave for longer than expected.

Further, Moeti confirmed that Africa is slated to receive 25% fewer Covid-19 vaccines by the end of the year than it was expecting. The United States and other wealthy nations have been under increasing pressure to donate their surplus of Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries as the pandemic wreaks havoc across the globe with the emergence of new and more contagious variants of the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.

As of September 10, confirmed cases of Covid-19 from 55 African countries reached 8,000,406 while over 74,831,814 vaccinations have been administered across the continent.