We all know that the fastest way out of the COVID-19 pandemic is to ensure that everyone, everywhere has fair access to vaccines. But two major barriers to achieving widespread vaccinations are hesitancy and misinformation
In Africa, social media has contributed to the spread of misinformation on the continent. That’s why sharing the correct information about vaccines is crucial to achieving widespread vaccination and ending the pandemic once and for all. ONE in Africa’s #MythOrVax campaign has worked to do...
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Brutal crescendo: Ethiopia’s cases increased by more than 1,800% between July and September — signaling the start of an alarming third wave in a country grappling to contain both the virus and a devastating civil war. Nation-wide, vaccination rates stand at just 2%, but that figure is nearly non-existent in Tigray due to the myriad challenges of administering vaccines in conflict zones and the destruction of at least 70% of the region’s health centers last fall. While the...
ONE, UNICEF, and the African Union have launched a new campaign on TikTok to counter false information about COVID-19 vaccines.
As part of our ONE World campaign, we have been calling for a global response plan to the pandemic, including global vaccine equity. In Africa, vaccine rollouts have been slow to start, with only 2% of Africa’s population fully vaccinated. Part of the issue is supply — wealthy countries are hoarding doses and not doing enough to ensure equitable access...
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Shocking symbol: Europe is set to receive millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses produced in South Africa. Up to 10 million Johnson & Johnson shots partially produced by South African manufacturer Aspen Pharmacare are to be exported to Europe in August and September, and millions more were exported in recent months. Meanwhile, South Africa is yet to receive the overwhelming majority of the 31 million J&J doses it ordered from the company, a key reason why only 7% of...
COVID-19 cases in Africa hit a record high in July. South Africa had the highest officially recorded COVID-19 infections and deaths, with more than 2.5 million confirmed cases over the course of the pandemic, and over 75,000 deaths. In fact, South Africa accounts for almost 40% of all coronavirus-related deaths on the continent.
The blue line refers to South Africa’s total. Visit our Africa Tracker for more data.
The blue line refers to South Africa’s total. Visit our Africa Tracker for...
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Surging: Deaths from COVID-19 in Africa are surging, with the average daily number of confirmed deaths ticking past 1,000 for the first time since the pandemic began. Confirmed deaths from the virus have increased by 80% in the past four weeks, driven by the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant. In Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous city, six people are dying per day and the positivity rate of those being tested has increased eightfold in the last month....
Dr. Charles Murigande is a former Rwandan minister of education and until his retirement in June 2020, he was the deputy vice-chancellor in charge of institutional development at the University of Rwanda.
The COVID-19 pandemic provided a lesson for Africa’s education sector: The continent must assume greater responsibility to address an unprecedented learning crisis. Africa must better address a crisis that threatens the vision of a knowledge-based society able to survive in a global and competitive environment.
Exacerbating learning poverty
Since the...
COVID-19 has exposed fault lines in both rich and poor countries. From failing public healthcare systems to racial inequality, the pandemic has laid bare unjust and inequitable structures that are failing the most vulnerable and marginalised groups. Poverty levels are rising globally. Between 88 million and 115 million more people were pushed into poverty in 2020 because of the pandemic, according to the World Bank.
In South Africa, the pandemic exacerbated inequality levels. This was evident during the protests and...
A roundup of the latest news, stats, and analysis of COVID-19’s impact in Africa. View our data tracker and sign up for our weekly newsletter, and read on for the impact of the pandemic on global education, Africa’s record COVID-19 death rate, and warnings of an impending “orphan crisis.”
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COVID-19 updates
Grim milestone: This week, Africa’s daily death COVID-19 rate tipped over the peak reached in January. ONE’s COVID-19 Africa Tracker shows that in the week to 26 July, more...
Rasna Warah is a Kenyan writer and journalist who is working with the ONE Campaign’s COVID-19 Aftershocks project.
While Western nations are focusing their attention on their post-COVID economic recovery, Kenya is confronting a crisis with far-reaching social and economic consequences: rising poverty levels. Kenya gained an additional 2 million “new poor” as of last November due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the World Bank’s Kenya Economic Update. “The pandemic is inflicting tragic loss of life and human suffering...