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Africa is ending another challenging year. The COVID-19 pandemic continued to spread, fuelled by new variants, while vaccine deliveries to the continent stuttered before picking up, causing delays in vaccination drives amid intensified calls for equity. The region also faced a range of other major health emergencies, including cholera, Ebola, Marburg and meningitis.

The Ebola outbreak that erupted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu Province in October – the second in 2021 – was today declared over, the national health authorities announced after no new cases were reported at the end of a 42-day countdown, or two incubation periods after the last confirmed case was discharged.

An 83% surge in new COVID-19 cases during the past week in Africa, driven by the Delta and the Omicron variants, is causing fewer deaths than previous surges—but more waves could be building as updated forecasts warn that the continent may not reach 70% vaccine coverage until August 2024, a new World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic assessment finds.  

The World Health Organization has handed over a consignment of various laboratory commodities for COVID-19 as well as routine laboratory testing worth over $600,000 to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. The donation is part of the Organization’s continued assistance to Sierra Leone to scale-up COVID-19 testing and confirmation of cases in communities and public health facilities at national and sub-national levels; heightened surveillance for Ebola; and, to ensure availability of critical laboratory testing services for appropriate patient management.