The lack of syringes could further hamper vaccination efforts. However, even at this accelerated pace, Africa will still be unable to reach a 40% vaccination rate by the end of December, as they will be some 275 million doses short, according to the WHO's most recent estimates.
The United Nations-backed COVAX program has accounted for nearly 90% percent of the vaccines delivered to Africa thus far in October. Still, a global lack of vaccine syringes may potentially stall immunization efforts: on Wednesday, United Nations Children’s Fund Executive Director Henrietta Fore declared there could be a global shortage of up to 2.2 billion of the auto-disposable syringes required to administer Covid-19 vaccines.
