WHO Aims For 30 Percent Of Needed Africa COVID Jabs

The World Health Organization and its partners have said they hope to provide Africa with about 30 per cent of the COVID-19 vaccines the continent needs by February, badly missing the 60 per cent vaccination coverage goal that African leaders had once hoped for this year.<br />WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the massive disparity in vaccination rates between rich and poor countries a solvable problem and urged pharmaceutical companies to prioritise the UN-backed COVAX initiative, which is designed to share vaccines globally and provide shots at no cost to lower-income countries.<br />The African Union accused manufacturers of COVID-19 shots of denying African countries a fair chance to buy them and urged manufacturing countries – in particular India – to lift export restrictions on vaccines and their components.