JOHANNESBURG – African officials say they are working to acquire hundreds of millions of vaccine doses for the continent over the next year and are urging African solidarity in the battle against coronavirus.
\nAfrica has seen 3.4 million confirmed cases since the virus arrived last February. Since then, Dr. John Nkengasong, a Cameroonian virologist, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), says health facilities across the vast continent have conducted 30 million tests \u2014 the bulk of them in 10 countries, including South Africa, the continent\u2019s coronavirus hotspot.
\nEthiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia and Uganda also conducted tests.
\nJust under 500 labs across the continent are participating in testing. Nkengasong named four countries that have recently begun vaccinations: Morocco, Egypt, the Seychelles and Guinea.
\nBut Nkengasong noted that much more needs to be done. He added that the private sector is also pitching in, with telecom giant MTN this week donating $25 million to the African Union\u2019s (AU) efforts to secure vaccines for the continent\u2019s 3 million health care workers.
\n\u201cThat is a great initiative,\u201d he told journalists on Thursday, speaking from AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. \u201cIt speaks to the power of partnership and what the private sector can do to step up to the plate and do that. We call on other parties, other private-sector [parties] to step up and work with us, so we can continue to fight this pandemic, especially with vaccines.\u201d
\nVaccines, Nkengasong stressed, are his top priority. In addition to the AU\u2019s efforts with American and British pharmaceutical companies, he said the AU has signed confidential disclosures with Russian, Chinese and Cuban vaccine producers to look into whether those products will work.
\nOne question that has also plagued African health officials, especially in South Africa, is whether the existing approved vaccines can work on the very contagious 501.V2 variant, which was reported in South Africa.
\nDr. Salim Abdool Karim, head of South Africa\u2019s coronavirus task force, told state television he is hopeful.
\n\u201cIf I was to speculate and guess, I would estimate that it’s quite likely that the vaccine will work, given that the other vaccines work against this variant,\u201d he said.
\nNkengasong also questioned the effectiveness of blanket travel bans from certain countries. Earlier this week, U.S. President Joe Biden announced a ban on travelers from South Africa because of the 501.V2 variant.
\n\u201cWe should not be banning people because of their geographic origin, but we should be encouraging people to travel with a negative test,\u201d Nkengasong said. … “And if we do that, we have a common and standardized policy with traveling with a negative test, then the issue of being more specific with a variant is off the table.”
\nThe Cameroonian virologist also broke from COVID-19 talk for a moment to evoke the memory of former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, South Africa\u2019s first Black president Nelson Mandela and Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie \u2014 three of the continent\u2019s leading lights \u2014 in calling for African unity and self-sufficiency.
\n\u201cIf we do not fight this as a collective of a continent,\u201d he said, \u201cwe will be doomed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: Voice of America<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"