Both countries maintain secrecy regarding infections and deaths and the Asian nation, which claims to have zero cases, even rejected three million doses.
Next month will mark a year since the start of vaccination against COVID-19, and although the global process has been questioned for advancing unevenly and having been concentrated in countries with more resources, only two still do not report the beginning of their inoculation campaigns.
The director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, indicated in the middle of this month that Eritrea, North Korea and Burundi were the only countries in the world that had not begun to apply vaccines to combat COVID-19 .
However, Burundi reported a few days ago that it had already decided to start vaccinating against the coronavirus.
Public Health Minister Thaddee Ndikumana had mentioned in March that the country “preferred to wait” to use “experimental” vaccines.
In the country, the injection is voluntary for Burundians and, according to witnesses, the influx to receive the vaccine is “relatively low” in the capital, Bujumbura. BBC.
To vaccinate, Burundi received 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm preparation last week. Ndikumana indicated that health workers and older adults would have priority to be immunized.
According to official WHO figures, Burundian health authorities have confirmed some 19,550 cases, including 14 deaths from COVID-19, although Burundi citizens are skeptical of these figures. France24.
Ndikumana said that, as agreed with the African Union, the World Bank and Unicef will receive the first until the first half of November.
The minister said Burundi’s vaccination program is part of a new six-month virus response plan developed with partners, including WHO, and that the World Bank has donated 2.4 million doses of vaccines to Burundi’s country. about 12 million people.
The WHO has indicated that Burundi would also receive the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.
Burundi rarely provides data on infections and deaths from the coronavirus, which has so far caused more than 244 million infections and 4.95 million deaths worldwide.
This secrecy around the ravages of the disease is also evident in Eritrea, which has been accused by several NGOs of violating fundamental freedoms. The WHO has reported, from January 2020 to the present, 6,792 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 45 deaths from the disease.
The cases of Burundi and Eritrea are not entirely unrelated to the slow progress of vaccination in Africa compared to the rest of the world. Just about 5% of its population is vaccinated thanks to the nearly 170 million doses administered, according to figures from the African Union Centers for Disease Control.
Morocco leads the statistics with 42.5 million vaccines that have already completely covered 54% of its inhabitants; while South Africa, officially the country with the most cases on the continent, has immunized 20% of its population with some 20 million vaccines, collects The country.
The very low percentage of vaccination at the continental level that Africa registers is attributed to the lack of doses caused by the hoarding of countries with greater resources, which have already begun to implement the third dose, while in Africa more than 25 countries have not vaccinated or 2% of its population.
Meanwhile, North Korea, the last on the list of countries that still do not register vaccination data and that has not recognized any case of the virus, shares with Eritrea the accusations of being countries where there is “modern slavery.”
The secrecy maintained by Kim Jong’s regime led him to reject three million vaccines in September, according to EuropaPress.
The rudeness was considered unprecedented. The country has become more armored since the pandemic broke out in neighboring China, one of the few countries with which it has ties.
The regime maintains a reduction in travel and prohibits access to humanitarian organizations that seek to verify the real situation of the nation.
To the closed Asian nation, the Covax mechanism earlier this year had assigned some two million doses of the AstraZeneca drug, but they were not delivered. Another offer was 2.97 million doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, but the North Korean Ministry of Health said it does not want them. Russia has also made offers.
The rejection of the regime would be justified in that the global supply of vaccines is “limited” and is accompanied by a request that they be destined for countries that register an increase in cases or that need them urgently.
However, he has emphasized that he agrees to continue in contact with Covax “to receive vaccines in the coming months.”
Although North Korea claims not to have any case of COVID-19, it has been reported that, since the beginning of the pandemic, it has carried out some 36,000 tests and that the measures and restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the virus would be aggravating the humanitarian crisis that crosses the country. (I)
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