President of France, Emmanuel Macron on Friday said his government will invest in increasing the production of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa, reported Aljazeera.
Addressing a joint news conference with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria on Friday, Macron said Africa made up about 20 percent of the world’s need for vaccines but only one percent of vaccine production.
“Trying to lift the hurdles in order to allow vaccine production in South Africa and all of Africa, we are in favor of that,” the president said. “But what is the problem we are trying to overcome? What we need to do is vaccinate as soon as possible, as many people as possible. It is a matter of duty and solidarity.”
The France president said the more time it takes to vaccinate people against coronavirus, the more the virus is likely to mutate and return. He adding that richer countries should provide any excess doses they have to poorer countries as quickly as possible.
Macron also pledged that France will donate more than 30 million vaccine doses by the end of the year to the United Nations-backed COVAX global vaccine initiative.
Notably, France already had a partnership with South Africa’s Biovac Institute and is expected to launch a project with South African pharmaceutical company Aspen.
Macron also reiterated France’s support for waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, a move also supported by the United States President Joe Biden.
South African President Ramaphosa also called for unity in the fight against the pandemic, noting that “no one is safe until all of us are safe.”
“We look forward to continued collaboration for the benefit of our peoples, our countries, our respective regions, and the world,” the South African president said.
South Africa is the worst COVID-19 hit African country. It has recorded more than 1.6 million cases of Africa’s 4.7 million infections and accounts for more than 40 percent of its nearly 130,000 fatalities.
