Africa CDC: Nations might turn to COVID-19 vaccine mandates

By CARA ANNA
Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says African governments might have to resort to COVID-19 vaccine mandates if their citizens don’t hurry to get the increasingly available doses. The warning by John Nkengasong to reporters that governments “will not have a choice” came as the flow of doses to Africa’s 54 countries grows. But vaccine hesitancy, and the short shelf life of some donations, create new pressures to get doses into the arms of the continent’s 1.3 billion people. Africa remains the world’s least vaccinated region against COVID-19, with less than 8% of its population fully jabbed.