ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: John Nkengasong, heading the African Union’s public health agency, Africa CDC, notified reporting teams on January 27 that Africa is expected to reach its COVID-19 inoculation goal of covering no less than 70 percent of its population by the end of 2022.

Officials at Africa CDC stated that they were optimistic due to an increase in inoculations in African nations, including Nigeria, where the anti-vaccination momentum has seemingly ebbed, with expired dosages being destroyed and an increasing ability by the public to obtain vaccinations.

Some eleven percent of Africa’s population of 1.3 billion has received two to three vaccinations.

Nkengasong believes Africa will meet its inoculation goal, as the current momentum continues.

“If those trends we have seen across several countries are maintained, then we remain hopeful that we should be going to that target,” Nkengasong said, as reported by the Associated Press.

Nkengasong noted that research indicated that 80 percent of the African population surveyed in the study were prepared to receive Covid vaccinations.

“(Though) each time there is noise about a vaccine, such as expiration or things like AstraZeneca vaccines not arriving on time, it creates some sort of hesitation,” Nkengasong added.

The African Union’s public health agency confirmed that they have received 580 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine.