‘Africa will be worst affected if some countries continue to hoard vaccines’

Health Minister Doctor Zweli Mkhize has warned that Africa will become the worst affected continent by the coronavirus if some countries continue to hoard vaccines.

South Africa which has the highest coronavirus infections in Africa recently procured a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India’s Serum Institute.

In the video below, President Cyril Ramaphosa receives South Africa’s first consignment of the COVID-19 vaccine:

The country has recorded 3 751 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, bringing the cumulative number of cases to 1 466 767.

A further 261 people have succumbed to COVID-19 related complications.

This puts the national death toll 45 605.

The recovery rate stands at 1 327 186.

Addressing a dialogue on the impact of the pandemic in Africa, Mkhize said African countries must prepare for a possible third wave of coronavirus infections.

In the video below, Minister Mkhize addresses the dialogue:

“We need to vaccinate about 780 million people otherwise that means that we will end up being the continent that is seen as the source of COVID-19 when in fact we were the recipient of the spill-over that come from different parts of the world.”

“What we have seen also that is a challenge is that there have already been pronouncements to the fact that no one can travel to various countries unless they are already vaccinated. The hoarding of the vaccine is a huge issue once again. Africa has got a risk of remaining behind and being the one that has got the least vaccinated, but carrying the highest burden of the infection,” says the Minister.

Latest COVID-19 stats for SA: