COVID-19 vaccine supplies to African countries slow down

COVID-19 vaccine shipments to African countries have slowed down in May due to "the reliance on India as one of the key manufacturers globally, and the devastating surge of cases India is dealing with," a World Health Organization (WHO) regional director said on Thursday, according to Anadolu Agency.

Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa, made the comments during a media briefing on financing COVID-19 vaccines in Africa.

She said there is a great interest and push for COVID-19 vaccine "manufacturing on the African continent, and this is a promising medium- to long-term solution."

The African continent was expecting 66 million COVID-19 vaccine doses through COVAX facility from February to May, but instead has so far received only 18.2 million doses, according to Moeti.

There are over 4.7 million confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent with more than 4.2 million recoveries and 126,000 deaths, according to WHO figures.

KI/PR