PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa said rich countries needed to donate vaccines to African countries, which were battling to obtain vaccines.
Ramaphosa was delivering a virtual address to the Global Citizen movement on Tuesday.
“The campaign we are launching today recognises that overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic is essential if we are to make any progress in tackling poverty. To achieve this, we must deepen cooperation to ensure equitable access to vaccines. No person, no country and no region must be left behind,” said Ramaphosa.
To fight the pandemic, everyone needed to pool resources, capabilities, knowledge and intellectual property,” said Ramaphosa.
“And in this regard, I applaud and support what [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron and [European Commission] president Ursula von der Leyen have called for… that rich countries must donate 5% of their vaccines to needy countries, particularly on our continent – Africa,” he said.
He also said countries needed to share.
“Another important step is to enable the transfer of medical technology for the duration of the pandemic. This will allow us to increase the production of COVID-19 vaccines and other medical products,” said Ramaphosa.
(SOURCE: INSIDE POLITICS)
