The United Nations has warned that Africa is severely behind the rest of the world with the rollout of vaccines, disclosing that Africa has only administered less than 20 thousand doses so far.
This was disclosed by UN Chief, Antonio Guterres in a social media statement recently, where he urged the need for a global vaccine for a unified global vaccine effort.
He said, “More than 70 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far.
“Less than 20,000 of these were on the African continent. A global immunity gap puts everyone at risk. We need a global vaccination campaign that reaches everyone, everywhere,” he added.
READ: African Union secures 270 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from drugmakers
What you should know
- The Vaccine rollout in Africa may soon be on its way, as Nairametrics reported that South Africa has taken delivery of the first batch of Coronavirus vaccines (AstraZeneca) on Monday at the OR Tambo International Airport from India, the first consignment of the vaccine will target frontline workers, the second batch of 500 000 vaccines is scheduled to arrive later in February.
- Former president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says much of Africa may be left out until 2022 from vaccines. “Unless vaccine is seen as a free good on the basis that until everyone is safe, no one is safe — when it’s seen in that context, then perhaps the wealthier nations of the world will come up with a formula that says, how can we share the vaccine with those countries that are under-resourced?” she warned.
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