(3 minutes read)
- African leaders renewed calls for Covid-19 vaccine patent waivers, saying the decision would allow countries access to affordable jabs
- This point they reiterated, while attending a summit hosted by the German government recently
- The number of people vaccinated in Africa much less than some richer countries, which have inoculated nearly their entire adult populations
African leaders renewed calls for Covid-19 vaccine patent waivers, saying the decision would allow countries access to affordable jabs. This point they reiterated, while attending a summit hosted by the German government recently. The number of people vaccinated in Africa much less than some richer countries, which have inoculated nearly their entire adult populations.
The main source of vaccine for African countries is from multilateral and bi-lateral donations. Many people have referred to this as the inequity vaccine apartheid. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa termed it as ‘not fair’ and expressed his disappointment of the slow progress of vaccination in the continent. Africa has only vaccinated only 2% of the entire population of the 1.3 billion people. Developed countries in the north have vaccinated up to 60%.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had rejected calls to waive vaccines patents. At the same time, she observed that it was a ‘dramatic injustice’ that Africa’s vaccination rates remained low. Recently German laboratory BioNTech announced that it was aiming to set up vaccine production centres in Rwanda and Senegal next year.
