Cape Town, South Africa —
In the global race to vaccinate people against COVID-19, Africa is unfortunately lagging behind.
In fact, it barely got out of the starting line.
According to the global tracker kept by Johns Hopkins University, South Africa has the strongest economy and the largest coronavirus cases on the African continent, with only 0.8% of the population vaccinated. Hundreds of thousands of health workers in the country are still waiting for vaccinations, and many of them face the virus every day.
In Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, only 0.1% of its more than 200 million people are fully protected. In Kenya, which has a population of 50 million, the ratio is even lower. Uganda has recalled vaccines from rural areas because it hardly has enough drugs to fight the epidemic in big cities.

Because there was no pandemic. It was an epidemic because it never reached tropical Africa substantially. Why get a vaccine you don’t need??