WB, AU agree plan to speed up jabs
WASHINGTON - The World Bank will partner with the African Union to help accelerate coronavirus vaccinations on the continent, the Washington-based lender said.
The two organisations will provide resources to the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) to allow countries to acquire and deploy vaccines to as many as 400 million people across Africa, according to a statement.
"As a result of this joint initiative between the World Bank and African institutions such as the African Export-Import Bank and the Africa Centres for Disease Control, we now have the capacity to vaccinate at least 400 million people, or 30 percent of our population of 1.3 billion," Strive Masiyiwa, coordinator of the AVATT, said in the statement.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has said a large number of poorer countries receiving Covid-19 vaccines through a global sharing scheme do not have enough doses to continue programmes,
WHO senior adviser
Dr Bruce Aylward said the Covax programme had delivered 90 million doses to 131 countries.
But he said this was nowhere near enough to protect populations from a virus still spreading worldwide.
The shortages come as some nations in Africa see a third wave of infections.
On Monday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called for an end to vaccine hoarding by wealthier countries as his government scrambled to curb a steep rise in cases.
On a continental level, only 40 million doses have been administered so far in Africa - less than two percent of the population, Ramaphosa said.
To address this, he said his government was working with Covax to create a regional hub to produce more vaccines in South Africa.
Covax was created last year to ensure Covid-19 doses were made available around the world, with richer countries subsidising costs for poorer nations. – BLOOMBERG NEWS/ BBC.