The White House said that during a meeting on Thursday with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Joe Biden, the U.S. President, said America would make a one-time donation of over 17M Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses to the African Union. That would bring the total US donation to the African continent to around 67M.
Previously, according to the White House, America donated 50M shots to the African Union, consisting of fifty-five member nations, including some of the world’s impoverished countries. Now, the latest share of 17M will be transported to the AU in the upcoming weeks. Moreover, the White House selected the 1-dose COVID-19 vaccine for its extraordinary advantages.
US donates 17 million doses of J&J vaccine to African Union – White House pic.twitter.com/nL0R5X4vGM
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) October 14, 2021
Furthermore, the Executive Mansion said that the Janssen vaccine is in high demand and in short supply in the continent and elsewhere worldwide. 1-dose administration, long-shelf-life, and easy cold chain make that jab an asset to global vaccination programs.
Kenyatta said that America had done its best to scale up in terms of not only helping the Republic of Kenya but the world’s second-largest and second-most-populous continent, Africa.
It was an honor to welcome President Kenyatta to the White House this afternoon. The U.S.-Kenya strategic partnership is essential to addressing key regional and global challenges — and I’m committed to further elevating our ties with Kenya and nations across Africa as a whole. pic.twitter.com/3Fn9po4yY8
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 14, 2021
How Many Africans Are Fully Vaccinated?
African nations and the WHO have been urging drug manufacturers to set up jab plants in Africa to assist them in securing supplies of COVID doses that rich countries have hoovered up.
According to John N. Nkengasong, the Director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 4.5 percent of African people had been fully protected against the fatal disease as of recent week. The US leader said the two nations would discuss what America could do to assist with security problems is the Horn of Africa and ways to battle climate change.
Additionally, any new jabs are possible to be greeted, after the WHO said Thursday that its assessment found that 6 out 7 COVID infections aren’t being detected on the continent. The international public health agency estimates there’re fifty-nine million infections in the continent, far more than the reported figures, which stand at 8M.
Source: Web
The AU, whose nations comprise over 1.3 Bn people, has alleged that producers aren’t giving its member nations adequate access to jabs. Only two percent of the approximately 5.7 Bn COVID-19 shots given to the people worldwide have been in the African continent.
