80% of Africans will take Covid-19 vaccine-Survey

A survey conducted by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), in partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has shown that a predominant majority (79% average) of respondents in Africa would take a COVID-19 vaccine if it were deemed safe and effective.

Conducted between August and December 2020, the survey interviewed more than 15,000 adults, aged 18 years and above, across 15 African countries: Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, and Uganda.

Data from the survey shows significant variations in willingness across countries and across the five regions in the continent, from 94% and 93%, respectively, in Ethiopia and Niger to 65% and 59%, respectively, in Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Covid-19 situation in Africa is taking a worrying trend with positive cases from 55 countries reaching 2.5 million according to Johns Hopkins' data as on December 18, 2020.

The data also shows Africa has lost 57,814 people while recoveries are tagged at 2,070,501.

Africa's low cases has been attributed to low testing in most countries on the continent.

South Africa is the most affected country by the coronavirus on the continent and has entered a second wave of the pandemic, the health minister declared Wednesday.

The country now counts 828,598 infections after 6,709 new cases were detected between Tuesday and Wednesday.

South Africa had reined in its first wave which occurred in July at an average of 12,000 cases detected daily.

Numbers then gradually came down, at a point dropping below 1,000 in September.

Africa, just like the resty of the world, is hoping to get the Covid-19 vaccine for protection.