President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged First World countries to do more to help address vaccine inequity.

During the Covid-19 World Summit last week, Ramaphosa urged developed countries to assist developing countries to produce their own vaccines.

He says although African countries are grateful for the millions of doses of covid-19 vaccines, donated to them, more needs to be done to immediately increase access to the vaccines.

He says sharing vaccine knowledge and technology is one of the easiest ways to address vaccine inequity.

Access the full Global Covid-19 Summit briefing here.

Related articles:

The World Health Organization says the vast majority of people who currently are admitted to hospital for Covid-19 treatment are unvaccinated.

Technical Lead at the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, Dr. Maria van Kerkhove again reiterated that the only way in which people can protect themselves against severe forms of the disease is to get their injection as soon as possible.

Van Kerkhove says vaccination would also suppress the possibility of new variant from developing.

Follow the full briefing here.

Related articles:

The World Health Organization says it hopes to, by February of next year, deliver at least 30% of the required doses of covid-19 vaccines to the African continent.

WHO director general, Tedros Ghebreyesus says the initial aim was to vaccinate at least 60% of the continent’s population by the end of this year.

Ghebreyesus says the big difference in vaccination rates between rich and poor countries can be bridged.

Follow the WHO’s latest Covid-19 briefing here.

You can also read more here.

Related articles:

A large percentage of young South Africans, between the ages of 18 and 24 years of age, are the most unwilling to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

This, according to new research by Ask Afrika, which also shows that only 62% of adult South Africans say they are willing to get a Covid-19 vaccine.

Ask Afrika CEO, Andrea Rademeyer says another 11% of residents are still sitting on the fence.

Rademeyer says the country’s overall vaccine-acceptance is much lower than the average of 70% recently reported in studies conducted by the University of Johannesburg and the Human Sciences Research Council.

Access the full briefing here.

Related articles:

Health Minister Joe Phaahla says there are very few countries in the world where the genomic sequencing of Covid-19 is as up to date, as here in South Africa.

He commended the country’s scientists for their early detection of the C.1.2 variant of the virus.

Phaahla says observing new variants in the early stages helps Government better plan for future outbreaks.

Access the Minister’s full briefing here.

Related articles: