Mauritania received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines donated by Europe and delivered through the COVAX initiative on Monday at the airport in Nouakchott, reported Africa News. The COVAX initiative aims to supply poorer nations with vaccines.
France is the first developed country to donate COVID-19 vaccines from its national supply to a developing nation.
“Today we have received a new batch of vaccines via COVAX, 31,200 doses, provided by the global mechanism COVAX,” said Mohamed Mahmoud Ely Mahmoud, Director of Strategic Information and Epidemiological Surveillance at Mauritania Health Ministry.
The French embassy in Mauritania said on Twitter that the objective of the donation is to help the African country to speed up its vaccination drive. Leaders of the COVAX initiative have urged more developed countries to follow in the footsteps of France.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the donation last week and appealed to more developed countries to follow suit at a time of intense competition for short supplies of vaccines, as coronavirus infection numbers are on the rise globally.
President Macron said his government would donate at least 500,000 doses through to mid-June to the COVAX program. The total could reach around 13 million from France alone by year-end, officials said.
New Zealand has also vowed to donate 1.6 million doses of vaccine that it had been set to receive through COVAX. Spain has pledged to donate up to 7.5 million doses to COVAX this year, once half of its own population is vaccinated.
Mauritania has reported over 18,000 coronavirus cases and over 450 deaths so far.
According to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa crossed 4,497,523 mark as of Sunday noon.
With over 1,576,320 COVID-19 cases, South Africa is the worst affected country in the African continent, followed by Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and Egypt.
