Welcome Remarks
- Good morning from the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, and thank you to members of the press for joining today’s briefing.
- At this time, I will share updates on the COVID-19 situation on the continent, including our response efforts and updates on the vaccine situation.
COVID-19 Epidemiology Update | OVERVIEW
- As of today, November 11th, African Union Member States are reporting the following:
- Total cases: Over 8.5 million COVID-19 cases have been reported in Africa, (8,545,945). This accounts for 3.5% of total cases reported globally.
- Total recoveries: Over 7.9 million people have recovered (7,958,470). This accounts for 93% of the total cases reported in Africa.
- Total deaths: Over 220,000 deaths have been reported (220,205). This results ina cumulative case fatality rate (CFR) of 2.6%,and accounts for 4.4% of deaths reported globally.
- The following five countries account for 61% of all cases reported in Africa.
- South Africa: 34% of total cases (2,924,622)
- Morocco: 11% of total cases (947,761)
- Tunisia: 8% of total cases (715,396)
- Ethiopia: 4% of total cases (367,857)
- Libya: 4% of total cases (362,915)
- Case Fatality Rate (CFR): this week, 27 countries (49% of Member States), are reporting a CFR higher than the global average of 2%.
- 3 countries (Egypt, Somalia and Sudan) are reporting a CFR higher than 5%.
- 84% of Member States(46 countries) experienced the 3rd COVID-19 wave. 34 (74%) MS are experiencing a more severe 3rd wave. (List attached)
- Since the last briefing, NO additional Member State is experiencing a 3rd wave.
- Nine countries (Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Mali, Mauritius, Somalia and Tunisia) are experiencing a 4th COVID-19 wave. 4 (44%) MS are experiencing a more severe 4th wave.
- Since the last briefing, TWO additional Member States (Burkina Faso and Mali) are experiencing a 4th wave.
COVID-19 Epidemiology Update | VARIANTS OF CONCERN (VOC)
- 45 countries are now reporting the Alpha (B.1.1.7) VOC.
Since the last briefing, NO additional Member State is reporting this variant. (List attached)
- 41 countries are now reporting the Beta (B.1.351) VOC.
Since the last briefing, NO additional Member State is reporting this variant. (List attached)
- 42 countries are now reporting the Delta (B.1.617.2) VOC.
Since the last briefing, NO additional Member State is reporting this variant. (List attached)
- 2 Member States are reporting the Gamma (GR/501Y.V3/P.1+P.1.1+P.1.2) VOC.
Since the last briefing, NO additional Member State has reported this variant. (List attached)
More details are provided in our dashboard:
COVID-19 Epidemiology Update | ONE-WEEK TREND ANALYSIS
- The following are trends for epidemiological week 44 (1 – 7 November 2021), compared to the previous epidemiological week 43 (25 – 31 October 2021):
- New cases: A total of 31,474 new cases were reported in Africa. This is a 4% decrease from the previous week.
- The highest proportion of new cases is from the Northern region (42%). The other regions are as follows:
- Southern region (28%)
- Eastern region (15%)
- Central region (9%)
- Western region (6%)
- The following 5 countries are reporting the highest number of new cases:
- Egypt (6,468)
- Botswana (6,168)
- Libya (3,745)
- Ethiopia (2,043)
- Cameroun (1,849)
- South Africa (1,840)
- The following 5 countries are reporting the highest daily incidence per million population, (average number of new cases per million population per day):
- Botswana (367)
- Seychelles (96)
- Mauritius (85)
- Libya (78)
- Gabon (32)
- New deaths: A total of 1,133 new deaths were reported in Africa compared to 1,318 from the previous week. This represents a 14% decrease in new deaths from the previous week.
COVID-19 Epidemiology Update | FOUR-WEEK TREND ANALYSIS
- The following are trends over the past 4 epidemiological weeks, (11 October – 7 November 2021):
- New cases: There has been an overall 11% average decrease in new cases reported in Africa each week.
- The following is a regional breakdown:
- 2% increase in the Southern region
- 18% decrease in the Eastern region
- 12%decreasein the Centralregion
- 6% decrease in the Western region
- 5% decrease in the Northern region
- The following is a breakdown by the most populous countries in Africa:
- DR Congo: 39% average increase
- Egypt: 4% average increase
- South Africa: 25% average decrease
- Ethiopia: 22% average decrease
- Kenya: 16% average decrease
- Nigeria: 11% average decrease
- New deaths: There has been an overall 12% average decrease in new deaths reported in Africa each week.
- The following is a breakdown by the most populous countries in Africa:
- Nigeria: 32% average increase
- Egypt: 13% average increase
- DR Congo: 100% average decrease
- Ethiopia: 25% average decrease
- South Africa: 24% average decrease
- Kenya: 3% average decrease
COVID-19 TESTING & MEDICAL SUPPLIES
- To date, over 79 million COVID-19 tests (79,674,167) have been conducted in African Union Member States since the pandemic started.
- Over 1 million new tests (1,022,560) were reported for epidemiological week 44 (1 – 7 November 2021).
- This is a 57% decrease from the previous week when 816,284 tests were reported.
- The cumulative positivity rate is 10.7% and the test-per-case ratio is 9.3, similar to a positivity rate of 10.8% and test-per-case ratio of 9.2 in the previous week.
- 4% of Member States(2 countries) are reporting a test positivity rate higher than 12%. (List attached)
CAPACITY-BUILDING FOR MEMBER STATES
- Conducted Regional IPC ToT training for Central and Francophone West African Countries in Congo Brazzaville from 25th – 27th October 202, 13 National Focal Points were empowered.
- In-country IPC Step-down Training for Malawi is ongoing (2nd to 4th November 2021)
ANNOUNCEMENT
This week, the Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to COVID-19 (PERC) launched a fourth round of in depth country-level briefs for 19 AU Member States, which combine multidisciplinary data, including results from phone surveys, to help determine the acceptability, impact and effectiveness of public health and social measures (PHSMs).
- PERC’s latest data confirms that the impact of COVID continues to be felt across the continent. After most Member States suffered from a large third wave driven by Delta, the wide-ranging secondary impacts (including loss of income, food insecurity and disrupted access to health services) and lack of vaccine are impacting communities’ ability to stay safe.
- In almost all surveyed Member States, the majority of respondents continue to believe COVID is a risk to their communities, but lack of access to the vaccine and economic impact of other measures are limiting communities’ ability to respond effectively.
- Reported vaccine hesitancy was low, and there is considerable unmet demand for vaccine (as indicated by the gap between reported acceptance and current vaccine coverage.) Increasing uptake will require predictable supply, coordinated messaging and improved accessibility.
- The briefs highlight data on vaccine acceptance, self-reported adherence to response measures, personal perceptions of risk from COVID-19, trust in government pandemic response, and belief in misinformation, as well as the burden of COVID and accompanying PHSMs on income loss, and barriers to food and health care access.
- Some initial findings:
- More than three in four respondents indicated that they had been vaccinated or were likely to get vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine. This varied widely by country, from 43% of respondents in Cameroon to 97% in Morocco, but overall represents an increase from February 2021, when 67% of respondents reported planning to receive a vaccine. Vaccine acceptance was high among those that reported satisfaction with their government’s pandemic response and among those with high personal perception of risk from COVID-19. In almost all surveyed Member States, the gap between vaccine acceptance and vaccine coverage was large, demonstrating substantial unmet need and underscoring the need for increased and predictable vaccine supply in Africa that can support a focused effort on increasing uptake.
- Individual PHSMs (hand-washing, mask-wearing) continued to garner support from nine out of 10 respondents, while PHSMs restricting mobility and gatherings were supported by less than half of respondents (46%), part of a downward trend since August 2020. The high support for individual PHSMs suggests that these can continue to be effective strategies for reducing COVID-19 transmission that Member States should continue to promote as effective ways of reducing risk .
- The secondary impacts of COVID control measures and the impact of the pandemic are stark across the continent. Income loss and challenges in accessing food were severe in almost all surveyed Member States – three in four respondents reported having lost some or all their income since the beginning of the pandemic, and half of all respondents reported missing a meal in the previous week.
- We hope that you will access the country briefs (https://preventepidemics.org/covid19/perc/); there is a regional report forthcoming in December that we will share more information about in the coming weeks.
COVID-19 VACCINE UPDATE
- With regards to the current progress of vaccinations across the continent – as of 10th November, African Union Member States are reporting the following:
- Total vaccine doses supplied: 357.9 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been procured by 54 Member States.
- Total vaccine doses administered: 204.3 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, which corresponds to 57.09% of the total supply available in Africa.
- Coverage: 6.06% of the population has been fully vaccinated on the continent.
- The following five countries have administered the most vaccine doses in Africa.
| Country | Doses administered | % of the supply | % of Population fully vaccinated |
| Morocco | 45.9 million | 100% | 59.18% |
| Egypt | 25.5 million | 100% | 8.38% |
| South Africa | 21.9 million | 100% | 20.24% |
| Algeria | 11 million | 50.91% | 10.67% |
| Tunisia | 9.1 million | 93.7% | 29.88% |
More details are provided on our dashboard (https://africacdc.org/covid-19-vaccination/)
- Eritrea is the remaining AU Member States yet to start COVID-19 vaccine roll out.
- AVAT J&J DELIVERIES
In the past week,28 Oct -10 Nov. AVAT delivered 3, 448,800 doses of J&J doses to 14 AU Member states and 1 CARICOM Country
The total number of AVAT deliveries(J&J) to 31 AU member states totals about 14.4 M doses. These are Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, DRC, Burkina Faso,Sao Tome and Principe. Also, 12, 000 doses were delivered to the African Union.
591,600 doses of the same were delivered to 6 Caribbean countries; Trinidad and Tobago, Bahamas, Guyana, Jamaica, Belize, Antigua &Barbuda. Till date AVAT deliveries stand at about 15 M doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
