Sept. 15, 2021
Less than 3.5% of Africans are vaccinated against COVID-19, far short of its official target of 60%, John Nkengasong, director of Africa’s Centers for Disease Control, said on Tuesday.
World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the same briefing that the continent was being “left behind by the rest of the world” and that this would allow the coronavirus to keep circulating.
Rich countries have continued to donate vaccines to countries in Africa.
The European Union on Wednesday in its latest donation pledged to donate another 200 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to low-income countries, more than doubling its present pledge, the bloc’s chief said.
“I can announce today that the commission will add a new donation of another 200 million doses until the middle of next year,” she told the European Parliament in her annual State of the European Union address.
Von der Leyen told the Strasbourg assembly the donation is “an investment in solidarity, and it is an investment also in global health”.
She recognised the disparity that has emerged between economically advanced countries such as the United States and those in Europe, which have pushed ahead in vaccinating the majority of their populations against the coronavirus, and poorer nations that are struggling to get hold of supplies.
“With less than one percent of global doses administered in low-income countries, the scale of injustice and the level of urgency is obvious,” she said.
REUTERS
