Africa faces a 470 million shortfall in Covid-19 vaccine doses this year after the Covax alliance cut its projected shipments, raising the risk of new and deadly variants, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says.

Only 17 per cent of the continent's population will now be vaccinated by the end of this year, compared with the 40pc target set by the World Health Organisation, the global agency's Africa unit said at its weekly briefing in the Congolese capital of Brazzaville, reports AFP.

“The staggering inequity and severe lag in shipments of vaccines threatens to turn areas in Africa ... into breeding grounds for vaccine-resistant variants,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's Africa director.

“This could end up sending the whole world back to square one.”

Due to global shortages, the Covax alliance set up to ensure equitable delivery of jabs, will ship about 150 million fewer doses of vaccine to Africa than planned.