COVID-19: Not a single vaccination in Africa as 12.3m doses are administered globally

At least 12.3 million doses of approved COVID-19 vaccines have so far been administered globally, according to tallies by Bloomberg and Our World in Data.

In the tallies published here and here, no African country has vaccinated any of its citizens, while some countries, including Nigeria, are expecting supplies by the end of January.

With 4.5 million and 4.3 million respectively, China and the United States are the countries with the highest number of vaccine shots given, according to the data which also shows that at least 30 countries have already begun inoculating their populations.

Countries in this category are in Asia, Europe and North America. The most common ones being administered are those from Pfzer and Moderna.

The race to end the coronavirus – which has killed 1.8 million out of the 85.7 million infected globally – got a major boost on December 8 with the administration of the first vaccine, from Pfizer and BioNTech.

Since then, at least 14 vaccines have either been approved or are on track to be approved by various countries, according to Bloomberg.

A vaccine by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford, was first used in the United Kingdom on December 30 while China and Russia are relying on home-made vaccines, respectively, from Sinopharm and Moscow-based Gamaleya Center.