The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) registered 6,480 new coronavirus cases in the week of December 13th, 2021. As the least vaccinated country in the world, health officials are concerned that this surge may risk the emergence of new variants.
This trend is part of the public health crisis afflicting the nation, which experienced an 83% increase in COVID-19 cases in early December 2021. This leaves hospitals like The St. Joseph’s Treatment Center in Kinshasa – the capital of DRC – with only one of thirty eight beds left for sick Congolese citizens.
“We have experienced the three previous waves gradually, but in the fourth wave, cases have jumped overnight,” said Francois Kajingulu, the head of St Joseph’s. “On Monday we had 5-6 cases, and on Saturday we went straight from 30 to 36.”
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, only 39% of surveyed households in Kinshasa are willing to get vaccinated. This hesitation is due to distrust of the international community (44%), distrust of vaccines (36.3%) and concerns about potential health risks (20%). These motives may be the consequence of citizens having less access to information, in terms of in-person education and internet availability being compromised throughout the pandemic. Even in the case of the 39% who are willing to get vaccinated, additional barriers to inoculation remain, such as terrain that is difficult to traverse, largely remote populations and extensive economic insecurity.
However, according to Reuters, the weekly vaccination rate is at its highest yet, with health workers vaccinating around 200 people per day. The majority of those vaccinated reside in Kinasha, which has since come to be colloquially known as the “Vaccinodrome.”
“Before we were in the dark,” Kinshasa resident Popol Kabasale said, after receiving a dose of the vaccine. “COVID really exists, and to protect myself, I’ve come to get the vaccine.”
Experts predict that the COVID-19 Omicron variant, in conjunction with the Delta variant and influenza, is likely to create a “grim beginning” to 2022. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, said that while the Omicron variant “is more transmissible… we have the tools now” to keep Americans safe. The United States of America will survive – but what about the rest of the world, like that of the Democratic Republic of the Congo? The country not only lacks the appropriate tools, as a consequence of not having access to the proper resources. Rather, it seems that its people have largely been forgotten, given a world in which nations merely focus on their own ability to thrive.
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