Africa UN Knowledge Hub for COVID-19

The world’s poorest have faced two extraordinarily difficult years. The pandemic has caused unprecedented reversals in poverty reduction that are further exacerbated by rising inflation and the effects of the war in Ukraine.

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and vaccines remain our most important tool for helping every country overcome it and get on the path to recovery.

The World Bank has approved a €454.4 million (R7.6 billion) loan to South Africa for the country’s Covid-19 Emergency Response Project.

The link between coronavirus infection and death seems to have been broken in South Africa where new data on the fourth pandemic wave of SARS-CoV-2 caused by the B.1.1.529 Omicron variant have been reported (N Engl J Med 2022; doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2119658). Infection rates rose sharply without a corresponding increase in hospitalizations and deaths. Some commentators suggested that the Omicron variant was milder than previous generations of the coronavirus. But according to the report's authors, this is not the most likely interpretation.

Self-reported vaccination rates are consistently higher than what is reported by respondents about vaccination prevalence in the communities.

Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs) are projected to experience subdued growth

In these challenging times marked with inflation, climate change, pandemics, and geo-political tensions, one should be concerned with the situation of the poorest economies, in Africa notably.

To expand global access, Pfizer and Merck signed voluntary licensing agreements that grant permission to select manufacturers to produce generic oral antivirals.

A recent study that examined the impact of information sources on Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in sub-Saharan Africa discovered a strong link between people’s use of various media sources and vaccination resistance.

In many African countries, the existing health infrastructures struggled to meet the needs of its populations before the pandemic.