Africa CDC: Africa amid third wave of COVID-19

The director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the continent was going through a third wave of COVID-19, and stressed the need to enhance prevention measures such as social distancing, mask wearing and crowd avoidance.

"Masks for now are the best vaccines for the continent," Dr. John Nkengasong said, speaking at a virtual meeting of the CDC.

"We are waiting for large scale vaccinations to happen maybe later towards the end of the year," added Nkengasong, a Cameroonian virologist who is trying to ensure some of the world’s poorest nations get a fair share of vaccines in a marketplace where they can’t possibly compete.

Nkengasong said that of the 500 million vaccine doses donation announced by the U.S. for the U.N.-backed COVAX programme, 200 million would arrive in 2021.

The new U.S. commitment is to purchase and donate the 500 million Pfizer doses for distribution through the global COVAX alliance to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union, was bringing the first steady supply of mRNA vaccine to the countries that need it most.

The U.S. is now set to be COVAX's largest vaccine donor in addition to its single largest funder with a 4 billion US dollar commitment.

(Image Credit: AP)