ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Spike in new COVID-19 cases across the African continent has highlighted the need to bolster international cooperation against the pandemic, an Ethiopian official has said.
Yohannes Lakew, Manager of the National Immunization Program, told Xinhua that Ethiopia is stepping up efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccines rollout amid over 30 percent increase in new cases.
"More than 10 million doses have been administered so far in Ethiopia. We had a campaign over the last one month, which helped us to vaccinate more than 5.5 million doses within a short period of time," he said.
Ethiopia, and the rest of the African continent, remains the least vaccinated region in the world with less than 10 percent of its population fully vaccinated. This is compared to the WHO's 40 percent vaccination rate target for the end of 2021.
The manager attributed the slow pace in the rollout of COVID-19 vaccination to shortage of vaccine supplies and people's resistance due to religious and political stances among others.
The combination of low vaccination rates and continued spread of the virus has made the COVID-19 a major threat to Ethiopia and other African countries, he said.
Ethiopia reported 444,124 COVID-19 cases with 7,030 fatalities while the total number of people tested for the virus stands at 4,186,517.
Appreciating the role played by China in the delivery of COVID-19 vaccine doses to Ethiopia, Lakew said the government wants to boost its bilateral cooperation with China in a bid to get more vaccines amid growing concerns over the latest Omicron variant.
"The Chinese government support is very immense and when we faced supply shortage in the second quarter of 2021, we got the Sinopharm vaccine from the Chinese government," said Lakew.
"That helped us to vaccinate the targeted groups like older age, those working in transport and in other economic sectors. So, China's support was very critical and meaningful," he added.
Recalling the continued donation of the Sinopharm vaccine from the Chinese government, Lakew said the East African country has administered all vaccines it received from China.
"Almost all the Sinopharm doses that we received from the Chinese government have already been consumed," he said.
In November last year, Ethiopia received a donation of 800,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses from China, bringing the amount of vaccine support Beijing gave to Addis Ababa to 1.8 million doses.
According to Lakew, the demand for vaccine uptake in Ethiopia saw an upsurge recently on the backdrop of a series of campaigns conducted across the country.
Amid the rapid spike in new cases, Ethiopia is one among the 42 African countries that are presently battling the fourth wave COVID-19 infection, according to figures form the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa has exceeded the 10 million mark over the weekend. The death toll across the continent stands at 231,157 and some 8,916,469 patients have recovered from the disease so far, the Africa CDC said.
The African continent remains the least vaccinated region in the world with only 9.6 percent of its population fully vaccinated by early December. In contrast, the vaccination rate in developed economies has been far above 60 percent.
"There is a need to have an equitable distribution of vaccines. Vaccine allocation was not fair that was why new variants are coming. Unless we stop the transmission of the disease, no one will be safe," Lakew stressed.
Recalling the pledge by the Chinese government last November to provide an additional one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa to help the continent achieve its target of immunizing 60 percent of its population by 2022, Lakew said Ethiopia is anticipating a greater share considering its population size and positive ties with China. ■