WTO chief says vaccine inequity in Africa drives low rate of vaccination

The head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Tuesday that the low COVID-19 vaccination rate of around 4% in Africa was “devastating”, saying that trade should help address vaccine inequity, according to Reuters.

WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s remarks came at the opening session of a Geneva-based trade event alongside South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Around 4% of Africa’s population has been vaccinated so far, compared to around 54% in the US and 65% in the UK.

“The vaccines are not getting here in time, in the right quantity and the right price,” he said, adding that saving lives is “all about timing,” said the president of African Development Bank Akinwumi Adesina to CNBC in a statement.

“If there’s any lesson … that we have learned from this, it is that Africa should not depend on the rest of the world for supplying it with critical vaccines, and also therapeutics,” he added.

Indeed, South African company Aspen Pharmacare started producing Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine under a contract with the US pharmaceutical giant in order to drive a mass immunization system in the continent.

France announced that it will send 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines to Africa via the African Union throughout the next three months, according to AFP.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the September target will not be achieved unless vaccine supplies to Africa improve.

For its part, Morocco will start manufacturing the anti-COVID 19 Sinopharm vaccines next December, this project does not only meet the national vaccination campaign’s needs but also will contribute to making Morocco the pharmacist of Africa.