Africa not ready for imminent third virus wave: WHO

Santiago: Chile on Thursday became the latest country to limit use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, linked to rare blood clots, when a 31-year-old man developed thrombosis after being immunised.

Pending further investigation and as a "preventative and proactive measure," the shot will in future be administered only to people 45 and over, the health ministry of the South American country said.

It did not give details on the condition of the man who fell ill after receiving a first shot of the vaccine. Chile has already administered 326,560 doses of AstraZeneca, mainly but not exclusively to people over the age of 55 to limit the risk of blood clots reported in other countries.

Besides AstraZeneca, of which it has ordered six million doses, Chile also uses the Pfizer/BioNTech shot and China’s Coronavac. To date, the country has given at least one vaccine dose to 10.8 million people out of a 15.2 million target population -- one of the highest rates in the world.

The European Medicines Agency said in April that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine increases with age and outweighs the risks for adults. However, after a few hundred cases of blood clots, several countries have suspended or stopped the jab’s use altogether, or limited it to older people.

Clots are also being listed as a side effect of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which uses the same adenovirus vector technology as AstraZeneca. Meanwhile, hit by a fresh surge of infections and with vaccine deliveries at a near standstill, Africa is not ready to face a third wave of the pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned Thursday.

"Many African hospitals and clinics are still far from ready to cope with a huge rise in critically-ill patients," warned WHO regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti. "The threat of a third wave in Africa is real and rising," she added in a virtual briefing.

Africa has officially registered over 4.8 million cases and 130,000 deaths, according to the WHO, representing 2.9 percent of global cases and 3.7 percent of deaths. According to a survey conducted by the organisation in May, the essential health facilities and personnel required to manage critically ill Covid-19 patients are grossly inadequate in many African countries.

Of 23 countries surveyed, most had less than one intensive care unit bed per 100,000 population and only one-third had mechanical ventilators. In comparison, countries like Germany and the United States have more than 25 beds per 100,000 people.

"Treatment is the last line of defence against this virus and we cannot let it be breached," Moeti stressed, calling for better equipment for hospital and medical staff. In recent weeks, the continent has seen a rise in infections.

South Africa, officially the most affected country on the continent, has tightened health restrictions and now has more than 1.6 million cases and 56,439 deaths. In Uganda, the number of cases has jumped 131 percent in one week with outbreaks in schools and an increase in cases among health workers.

Meantime, wrapped in white cloth and marked only by numbered stickers, dozens of clay pots lay unclaimed at the Sumanahalli crematorium in the suburbs of Bangalore, where the ashes of India’s Covid dead have been piling up.

The urns were then transported for a mass riverside immersion ritual with the rest of the southeastern city’s uncollected ashes on Wednesday -- a total of 1,200 unaccounted virus victims.

The Hindu ceremony on the banks of the Cauvery River in the southern state of Karnataka comes as India battles a vicious second wave of infections that has killed 160,000 people in eight weeks, overwhelming the country’s healthcare system and crematoriums. In Hinduism, it is believed that immersing or scattering the ashes in the flowing waters of a river considered to be sacred liberates the soul of the deceased.