By Charlotte Webster-
The head of Africa’s health agency has warned that the UK’s policy of not accepting Covid-19 vaccine certificates from the continent could increase vaccine hesitancy.Dr John Nkegasong said people were beginning to question the essence of getting a jab if it was not accepted internationally.
Last week the UK government removed several countries from its so-called “red list”, which would usually require travellers to quarantine if they visited England.
However, it said those who had been vaccinated in most countries outside the UK, EU and US would still need to quarantine because the UK would not accept the certificates. The other UK nations – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – set their own health policies.
The policy is being seen as discriminatory and contradictory, and could give rise to the theory that the Uk is plotting a scheme to compel visitors from Africa to pay a fee to be vaccinated again when they arrive in the Uk, if they don’t want to have to quarantine.
“We do not understand why the UK has taken this position” said Dr Nkegasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
He told a news briefing it was “a message that creates confusion within our population… creating more reticence, reluctance for people to receive vaccines”.
He also posed the logical question of why the UK was sending vaccines to Africa but would not recognise those who have had them as being vaccinated.
“This message doesn’t really speak to solidarity and co-operation that we all believe are the cornerstone and ingredients for us to emerge from this pandemic together,” he said.
Dr Richard Mihigo, from the World Health Organization’s Africa region, said countries should now find a way of coming up with a mutual system that would recognise vaccine certificates from different countries.
The British High Commission in Kenya says it is working with the government there on a system to recognise each other’s vaccine certificates.
Less than 4% of people in Africa are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, compared to around 54% in the US and 65% in the UK.
Pressure is expected to be put on the Uk government to explain the apparent irrationality of their policy, particularly the question of why vaccines were sent to Africa if they weren’t going to be recognised.