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Africa CDC Slams Leaders for Hollow Vaccine Pledges


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September 9, 2021 at 5:23 PM

The African Union's health watchdog accused world leaders Thursday of falling short in their pledge to share coronavirus vaccines with poorer nations, and their failure risked making the disease endemic.

Africa is facing a COVID-19 resurgence as it lags in the global vaccination drive, with just 3.18 percent of its 1.3 billion population fully inoculated.

"We cannot continue to politicize this situation by making statements that we do not follow through with firm commitments," John Nkengasong, head of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said.

"Pledge do not put vaccines into people's arms". Across the continent, cases are rising at an alarming rate.

 More than 40 countries are experiencing the third wave of infection and six are grappling with their fourth, even as life in many wealthy nations is returning to normal thanks to high inoculation figures.

Facing anger over unequal access to jabs, the Group of Seven industrialized powers pledged in June to provide a billion COVID vaccines with developing nations, up from 130 million promised in February.

The G7 plan also included commitments to avert future pandemics, slashing time taken to develop and license vaccines to under 100 days, reinforcing global surveillance, and strengthening the WHO.

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