Together, the UN and the African Union (AU) condemned yesterday, Wednesday, December 1, the “segregation” to which certain countries of southern Africa are subject since the discovery of the Omicron variant in South Africa. The chairman of the AU commission was at the UN, where he met the secretary general for their annual meeting. And it is the news which took precedence over their usual diplomatic reflections.
With our correspondent in New York, Carrie Nooten
Antonio Guterres and Moussa Faki Mahamat have shown themselves together in indignation, in reaction to the border closures announced here and there. The UN chief insisted that Africa was doubly “doomed” in this pandemic, by not having access to enough vaccines at first, and by being now blocked in its economic recovery. He had harsh words: ” We have the tools to travel safely. So let’s use these instruments to avoid this kind of… if you will allow me to put it that way… apartheid of travel! “
Injustice
This injustice, this unjustified segregation, the president of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Moussa Faki Mahamat also deplored them. Especially since these restrictions fall at this time of summer and end of year celebrations, synonymous with tourist and economic recovery. ” It was revealed that this virus existed in one or two European countries long before the revelations made by South Africa ”, Indicated in particular the president of the commission of the African Union.
Unjustified restrictions
And Moussa Faki Mahamat explained that his organization, the UN, the WHO and the Africa CDC are doing everything to make these states understand that, scientifically, these restrictions are not justified, hoping that they will lift them quickly.
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The system for distributing anti-Covid-19 vaccines to the most deprived countries, Covax, broke a new record with more than eleven million doses distributed in 24 hours. Despite these good figures, donor countries are called upon to make an effort to facilitate the distribution of these vaccines.
A total of 11.38 million doses delivered to six countries last Monday! This is the record recorded by Covax … which includes the World Health Organization (WHO). In recent weeks, the process of distributing anti-Covid-19 vaccines to the poorest countries has been accelerating, but the target of 2 billion doses delivered by the end of the year nevertheless seems difficult to achieve.
So far, only 563 million doses have been sent. Another concern: the quality of donations made by the richest countries. Earlier this week, Covax and the African Union (AU) drew the attention of donor countries, complaining in particular of doses sometimes too close to their expiration date to be really usable.
In addition, they also regret that the vast majority of vaccines arrive without syringes, needles and diluents, so many tools and materials that are essential for the correct injection of the vaccine. There is still a long way to go: according to an AFP count, in rich countries, 146 doses of vaccine have been administered per 100 people against only 8 in poor countries!
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