President Cyril Ramaphosa has lauded the US for its initiative to give away another 500-million dose of vaccines as an important milestone in supporting the global community’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participating in the virtual Global COVID-19 Summit on ending the pandemic, President Ramaphosa cautioned that the gulf was widening between better-resourced nations that he again accused of hoarding vaccines.

SA President Cyril Ramaphosa laud US COVID-19 vaccine initiative

 

He has warned that the gap between the rich and the poor has continued to widen.

“The gulf is widening between better-resourced nations who are buying up and even hoarding vaccines and developing countries who are struggling to have access to vaccines. The pandemic has revealed the full extent of the vaccine gap between developed and developing economies and how that gap can severely undermine global health security of around 66 billion vaccine doses administered worldwide. Only 2% of these have been administered in Africa. A continent of more than 1.2 billion people. This must be unjust. And it also is immoral.”