South Africa is set to host a “technology transfer hub” for coronavirus vaccines to scale up production know-how in Africa’s worst-hit nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday.
He was joined by French President Emmanuel Macron and World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a media briefing to announce how the facility would help to scale up production know-how in Africa’s worst-hit nation.
A major focus of the briefing was the establishment of the first messenger RNA technology transfer hub for COVID-19 vaccines, located in South Africa,” the presidency said in a brief statement.
The WHO has previously set up such hubs, which provide know-how and training to local manufacturers, to boost global production of influenza vaccines.
During a visit to South Africa last month, Macron said he was pushing for faster transfer of technology to allow poorer countries to start manufacturing their own COVID-19 jabs.
In Africa only about one percent of the population is fully vaccinated, according to WHO figures. South Africa, along with India, has been pushing for a temporary waiver of vaccines’ intellectual property rights in order to speed up production. South Africa accounts for over 35 percent of Africa’s total recorded COVID-19 cases, and is currently suffering a third wave of mass infections.
Ramaphosa said French President Emmanuel Macron and World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus would join him at a media briefing to announce the initiative at 1500 GMT.
During a visit to South Africa last month, Macron said he was pushing for faster transfer of technology to allow poorer countries to start manufacturing their own COVID-19 jabs.
In Africa only about one percent of the population is fully vaccinated, according to WHO figures.
South Africa, along with India, has been pushing for a temporary waiver of vaccines’ intellectual property rights in order to speed up production.
South Africa accounts for over 35 percent of Africa’s total recorded COVID-19 cases, and is currently suffering a third wave of mass infections.
Ramaphosa on Monday said the daily caseload had soared 1,500 percent since April, when there were less than 800 cases a day, to over 13,000 in the past week.
“The climb in new cases has been extraordinarily rapid and steep,” he said in his weekly newsletter.
South Africa’s third wave coincides with a struggling vaccine rollout, with just over two million of the 59 million-strong population receiving at least one dose since February.
Vaccinations have so far only been open to health workers and the over-60s, with teachers due to become eligible to receive a shot from Wednesday.
