German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday announced Germany will make up to 70 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine available to African countries this year, more than doubling the previous promise to donate 30 million, reported Reuters.
“Germany will make available not only 30 million doses of vaccines but it will be as much as 70 million doses,” the German chancellor told a news conference on Friday.
The news conference was held after Merkel attended a summit with African leaders on the G20’s Compact with Africa initiative.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said African leaders told the summit that it is not fair that Africa has vaccinated only 2 percent of their 1.3 billion population, while the more developed countries in the north have vaccinated up to 60 percent of their population.
“All of us in that meeting felt that Africa needs to be given the opportunity and the right to produce vaccines,” Ramaphosa said at the joint news conference with Merkel.
German Chancellor Merkel said she was confident that there could be a transfer, step by step, of the vaccine production technology to allow the production of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa.
The South African president thanked Merkel for championing the G20 Compact with Africa.
Notably, the G20 Compact was launched in 2017 under Germany’s G20 presidency. It aims to promote private investment in Africa and ease poverty which, along with political instability and violence, has encouraged large numbers of Africans to head for Europe.
“She has been a champion of the African continent … and Africa is going to miss her greatly,” Ramaphosa said.
Merkel, who is in power since 2005, plans to stand down after Germany’s federal election next month.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa Regional Director Matshidiso Moeti said COVID-19 vaccinations in African nations have tripled during the past week, but protecting even 10 percent of the continent by the end of September still remains a daunting task.
