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With over 20 years of experience in mass immunization drives and rapid-response planning across Africa, World Health Organization (WHO) Immunization Officer Dr Messeret Shibeshi is aiding 20 East and Southern African countries in rolling out life-saving COVID-19 vaccines.

The Paz Flor mall is usually packed with shoppers browsing for bargains or sitting down to enjoy a meal, but as Angola’s rollout of COVID-19 vaccines ramps up, the vibrant space in the nation’s capital has been converted to serve up life-saving vaccines.

Thursday 1 July 2021, Freetown: As Sierra Leone battles her third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) in Sierra Leone with funding from our partners – GIZ and the German Cooperation - have once again supported the Ministry of Health and Sanitation with a donation of essential laboratory supplies that will help the country to respond to the third wave. The supplies include 82,000 sample collection kits; 1,620 automated PCR Kits (GeneXpert); and 10,000 antigen-based rapid diagnostic test kits (Ag-RDTs), altogether valued at $195,284.

As COVID-19 case numbers in Africa climb faster than all earlier peaks, new and faster spreading variants are fuelling the continent’s surging third wave.  

Selamawit Araya is a volunteer nurse serving displaced people in Mekelle. She was trained by WHO and partners as a vaccinator for the oral cholera vaccination campaign that commenced in the region on 10 June 2021.