According to South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa says Africa is faced with, what he calls, the most dangerous challenge in terms of shortage and access to vaccine doses.
He says less than 1% of the continent’s population is fully vaccinated. Ramaphosa says vaccines are flooding into developed countries but just trickling into Africa, stressing that the lack of access to vaccines undermines the efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For as long as the virus continues to spread in one part of the world, it remains a threat to the whole world. And we know how this virus started spreading. It started spreading from one location in the world in no time it engulfed the whole world. So if we run into a little corner saying we will contain it here through vaccinations and leave other parts we are actually just working backward,” the President says.
President Ramaphosa says the continent is willing and able to begin vaccine manufacturing. He says all that’s needed now is the green light for knowledge and technology transfer.
On their part, France says it’s committed to ensuring that Africa develops the capacity to begin manufacturing vaccines in the near future.
The French President Emmanuel Macron added that he will push for the patent waiver on COVID-19 products at the upcoming G7 meeting next month.
Even more so, Macron says the transfer of technology and knowledge is critical in fighting the pandemic.
The waiver was tabled by South Africa and India at the World Trade Organisation.
Other support further includes officials from The United States of America.
