蜜芽传媒

President Joe Biden will be hosting a global summit on Covid-19 today. Although the situation has improved dramatically in many parts of the world, Africa has only received 158 million doses for the continent. The global Covax vaccine scheme, intended to help poorer countries, has supplied about 37% of these, with most acquired through bilateral deals and donations.

Dr Richard Mihigo, Immunization and Vaccines Development Programme Coordinator, WHO, Regional Office for Africa says pledges have to be translated into delivery of vaccines.

鈥淭oday only 55m people in Africa have received their two doses of vaccine. That鈥檚 represents really nothing 鈥� only 2.6% of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa. So we need really to accelerate the delivery of the vaccine to get people protected against this disease. We have seen the pledges in the past. What we really need is the vaccine in the arms of the people.

鈥淪o far Africa has done very well in terms of delivery of the few doses that have arrived. There have been a few challenges with vaccines arriving very late with a short shelf life. But this situation is not for Africa only鈥� the United States alone has wasted more than 15 million doses.鈥�

(Pic: Supporters of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) march to demand a rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, in Pretoria, South Africa; Credit: Reuters)

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