African experts advise governments not to enforce mandatory vaccination before delivering enough vaccines

By Ben Musanje

7^th Dec 2021

Experts from the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention – Africa CDC have noted that the continent hasn’t reached a situation of forcing people to be vaccinated of Covid-19 due to the insufficient amount of vaccines delivered.

This comes at a time when Uganda’s Minister for Health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng disclosed to the parliament that they plan to table amendments to the Public Health Act that will among others address the contentious issue of making Covid-19 vaccination mandatory.

Speaking at the virtual Cross-border media café meeting today about the beating hesitancy and herd immunity, Dr. Lul Riek, the Southern Africa Regional Coordinator for Africa CDC says that African governments have to ensure they access vaccines for at least 60 percent of the country’s population to make it mandatory.

Dr. Riek however says that it is the government’s responsibility to convince people to turn-up for the vaccination by answering all misinformation questions about the safety of the vaccines and establishing vaccination centers to nearby communities, increase the amount of vaccines and limit uncoordinated deliveries.

He further encourages people to trust their governments and Africa CDC by embracing and participating in the vaccination exercise for the benefit of their lives and families.

Esnart Sikazindu, a media expert from Zambia attributes vaccine hesitancy and failure to attain herd immunity in African countries to the rise of social media and the internet where misinformation is widely shared.

According to the African CDC, the country to attain herd immunity has to at least vaccinate between 60 -70 percent of her population but the more it fails, the more the continued spread of Covid-19 could be recorded.