from ADANE BIKILA in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
ADDIS ABABA, (CAJ News) – A DONATION of millions of COVID-19 vaccines by the United States is a timely boost for Africa, whose inoculation exercise is progressing slowly because of a lack of vaccines.
The US this past weekend confirmed the donation of 25 million vaccines to the continent.
These will be donated to 49 countries.
The availability of the vaccines is through a partnership between the government of President Joe Biden, with the African Union and COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX).
Jalina Porter, Principal Deputy Spokesperson of the US Department of State, confirmed the first shipments, planned for the coming days, will head to Burkina Faso, Djibouti and Ethiopia.
“We are making progress on this global vaccination effort each day and we will continue to update you as additional doses are shipped,” she said at a departmental press briefing.
Porter said by Monday, the US also expected to deliver millions of vaccines to Argentina, Bhutan, Costa Rica, Fiji, Haiti, Laos, Jordan, Moldova, Nepal, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
“The Biden administration continues to send vaccines to countries all around the world,” the envoy said.
Biden in June pledged 500 million doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to developing nations.
African countries are struggling to vaccinate their populations.
While 43 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered per 100 people in the world, the vaccination rate in Africa is four doses per 100 individuals.
As of the time of publication, Africa had confirmed more than 6,2 million COVID-19 cases, including over 157 000 deaths.
– CAJ News