World Bank: Every Month of Vaccine Delay Costs Africa $14 Bln

A World Bank official said the slow rollout of coronavirus vaccines in Africa could cost the continent $14 billion a month in lost GDP.

Dina Ringgold, the World Bank's regional director for human development in Africa said on Thursday that the pandemic continues to put pressure on African economies and exacerbates poverty.  "We estimate that each month of delay in providing COVID-19 vaccines is likely to cost the African continent approximately $ 14 billion in lost GDP," Ringgold added.

Governments in Africa are vaccinating their populations at a much slower rate than developed countries, with less than 0.5% of the continent's 1.3 billion people having been fully immunized so far. The shortage of doses was partly due to soaring deaths in India, which prompted the country to ban exports.

Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's Regional Director for Africa, said at a press conference that vaccine shipments to African countries "have slowed down considerably this month due to dependence on India."

Ringgold said that vaccine funding requests from 36 African countries have been submitted to the World Bank, with a combined value of $2 billion. She added that seven applications have been approved while the others are still under consideration.