South Africa will launch phase two of its vaccine rollout on Monday with the aim of inoculating five million citizens aged over 60 by the end of June, its health minister said.



&#8220;This is provided that the supply of vaccines flows as anticipated. By the end of June we expect to have received 4.5 million doses of Pfizer and 2 million doses from Johnson &amp; Johnson,&#8221; the minister, Zweli Mkhize, said during a webinar on Sunday.



Mkhize said that more than 325,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine would arrive at midnight on Sunday, bringing the total of Pfizer doses up to 975,780.



So far South Africa has ordered enough COVID-19 vaccines for 46 million of its 60 million population.



The health minister said the country was still awaiting the Johnson &amp; Johnson vaccine to be released by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after its administration was paused and then restarted two weeks later due to concerns over blood clots.



South Africa is Africa&#8217;s worst-hit country in terms of infections and fatalities, with over 55,000 deaths and more than 1.6 million confirmed cases of COVID-19.



Fears of a third wave of the coronavirus have surfaced in recent weeks following the detection of two new variants in the country originating from India and the United Kingdom, as well as the slow rollout of vaccines.



The health minister said just under 480,000 health care workers had been vaccinated in the first phase, out of a target of 1.2 million. 



(Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana, Editing by William Maclean and Susan Fenton)

Pfizer-BioNTech_COVID-19_vaccine_2020_D

South Africa targets 5 million elderly people in phase 2 of COVID-19 vaccine rollout

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="515" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1216795082-820x515.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-397294" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1216795082-820x515.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1216795082-300x188.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1216795082-768x482.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1216795082-1536x964.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1216795082-scaled.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Scientific illustration of a corona virus on white background, based on covid-19 microscopic photos, the structure of lipid shell shown in yellow and protein spikes in red is shared by other viruses as MERS and SARS</figcaption></figure>



May 14 (Reuters) &#8211; Critics of Japan&#8217;s plan to hold the Tokyo Olympics despite a fourth wave of coronavirus infections submitted a petition signed by 350,000 people over nine days calling for the Games to be cancelled.



DEATHS AND INFECTIONS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals https://apac1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news.</li></ul>



EUROPE



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Britain&#8217;s sports minister is confident sports events can welcome back capacity crowds from June 21, though he said some &#8220;high-risk&#8221; venues would require safety measures.</li><li>Ireland&#8217;s health service operator shut down all its IT systems to protect it from a &#8220;significant&#8221; ransomware attack, crippling diagnostic services and forcing hospitals to cancel many appointments.</li><li>England will push ahead with its plan to lift restrictions gradually, the vaccines minister said.</li><li>Germany&#8217;s seven-day rate of cases fell below the threshold of 100 per 100,000 people for the first time since March, data from the Robert Koch Institute showed.</li></ul>



AMERICAS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The United States stands with Honduras and condemns the &#8220;cynical use&#8221; of vaccines for political purposes, the State Department said.</li><li>Pfizer repeatedly offered to sell its vaccine to Brazil&#8217;s Health Ministry between August and November last year, but got no answer from the government, the group&#8217;s chief executive for Latin America said on Thursday.</li></ul>



ASIA-PACIFIC



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>India&#8217;s tally of infections climbed past 24 million, amid reports that the highly transmissible variant first detected in the South Asian nation was spreading across the globe.</li><li>Nearly half the 150 passengers booked on Australia&#8217;s first repatriation flight from India were barred from boarding, after they or their close contacts tested positive for the virus, an Australian government source said.</li><li>A travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore set to open on May 26 has a &#8220;high chance&#8221; of being postponed, a Hong Kong official said.</li><li>Japan said it would declare a state of emergency in three more prefectures, in a surprise move reflecting growing concerns about the virus&#8217;s spread.</li><li>Singapore announced the strictest curbs on social gatherings and public activities since easing a lockdown last year, amid a rise in locally acquired infections and with new clusters forming in recent weeks.</li><li>Vietnam is looking to secure 31 million doses of the vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech in 2021, its health ministry said.</li><li>Taiwan reported a record rise in domestic cases, as community transmissions in part of central Taipei spread and the government called for people to be tested.</li><li>Mainland China reported seven new cases, including its first local transmissions in more than three weeks, the country&#8217;s national health authority said.</li></ul>



MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Egypt has received a batch of more than 1.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX initiative and a separate shipment of 500,000 Sinopharm vaccine doses from China, the health ministry said on Thursday.</li></ul>



MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The origin of the novel coronavirus remains unclear and the theory that it was caused by a laboratory leak needs to be taken seriously until there is a rigorous data-led investigation that proves it wrong, a group of leading scientists said.</li><li>Pfizer&#8217;s vaccine generates antibody responses three-and-a-half times larger in older people when a second dose is delayed to 12 weeks after the first, a British study said.</li></ul>



ECONOMIC IMPACT



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Global stocks rose and the dollar dipped after U.S. Federal Reserve officials said there would be no imminent move to tighten monetary policy in the world&#8217;s biggest economy.</li><li>Japan&#8217;s economy is set to grow much slower than previously hoped this quarter, hobbled by extended emergency measures put in place to halt a rise in infections, a Reuters poll showed.</li></ul>



(Compiled by Juliette Portala and Vinay Dwivedi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

CDC coronavirus

Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/corona-5174671_1920-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-403864" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/corona-5174671_1920-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/corona-5174671_1920-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/corona-5174671_1920-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/corona-5174671_1920-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/corona-5174671_1920.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Photo: by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay</figcaption></figure>



May 13 (Reuters) &#8211; Nearly 40% of all global deaths from COVID-19 reported last week happened in the Americas, and nearly 80% of the region&#8217;s intensive care units are filled with COVID-19 patients, the Pan American Health Organization said.



DEATHS AND INFECTIONS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals https://apac1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news.</li></ul>



EUROPE * Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced an inquiry next year into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that is likely to focus on why the United Kingdom suffered Europe&#8217;s worst death toll and was so slow initially to impose a lockdown.



AMERICAS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had found more cases of potentially life-threatening blood clotting among people who received the Johnson &amp; Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and sees a &#8220;plausible causal association.&#8221;</li><li>U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she was pushing for a waiver of COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property rights because the United States and drug makers have &#8220;an obligation to help save the world right now.&#8221;</li><li>U.S. President Joe Biden urged parents to get their children vaccinated after a government advisory panel authorized the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 12 to 15.</li><li>Brazil will run out of raw materials to produce Sinovac Biotech Ltd&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine by Friday, as a supply shipment has been held up in Chinese export clearance, authorities in the state of Sao Paulo said.</li></ul>



ASIA-PACIFIC



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>India had 362,727 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours while deaths climbed by 4,120, taking the toll to 258,317, health ministry data showed.</li><li>Dozens of Japanese towns have abandoned plans to accept overseas athletes competing in the Olympics from July due to concerns about inadequate resources amid a fourth wave of coronavirus infections, the Nikkei newspaper reported.</li><li>Technical problems derailed Japan&#8217;s coronavirus vaccination booking system, compounding frustration over the government&#8217;s handling of new outbreaks of infections and the inoculation drive.</li></ul>



MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA * Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera said that economic growth was projected at 3.8% in 2021, down from an earlier estimate of 6.1%, owing to the impact of COVID-19 on multiple sectors of the economy.



MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>More clinical and real-world data is needed on how well and for how long COVID-19 vaccines are protective before any decisions should be made on offering third or booster doses, Europe&#8217;s drug regulators said.</li><li>Australia is in &#8220;active talks&#8221; with COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna Inc to establish a domestic manufacturing facility for shots, Health Minister Greg Hunt said, a day after securing 25 million doses from the company.</li></ul>



ECONOMIC IMPACT



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Asian shares slipped to seven-week lows after a dismaying rise in U.S. inflation bludgeoned Wall Street and sent bond yields surging on worries the Federal Reserve might have to move early on tightening.</li><li>Oil prices pulled back from an eight-week high as concerns about the coronavirus crisis in India, the world&#8217;s third-biggest importer of crude, tempered a rally driven by IEA and OPEC predictions that demand is coming back strongly.</li><li>Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda pledged to maintain steps to cushion the blow from the COVID-19 pandemic, warning that risks to the economic outlook were skewed down amid a resurgence of infections and new state of emergency curbs.</li><li>Japan&#8217;s bank lending slowed sharply in April as corporate fund demand stabilised from last year&#8217;s pandemic-driven spike, data showed, a sign the wall of money pumped by the central bank is working its way through the economy.</li></ul>



(Compiled by Aditya Soni, Federico Maccioni and Vinay Dwivedi; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Sriraj Kalluvila and Anil D&#8217;Silva)

corona-5174671_1920

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="640" height="729" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Dr.-Moeti.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-403654" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Dr.-Moeti.jpg 640w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Dr.-Moeti-263x300.jpg 263w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption>Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, Regional Director, WHO-AFRO</figcaption></figure>



The COVID-19 pandemic stands as a stark reminder of how quickly infectious diseases can spread without vaccines, and the damage they can cause to health, economic and social systems. Although the contributions to our collective wellbeing are rarely acknowledged beyond global health circles, vaccines save millions of lives every year and are one of the world’s most successful health interventions. Yet there are nearly <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2021/04/24/default-calendar/world-immunization-week-2021">20 million children</a> in the world today who are not getting the vaccines they need – and many more are at risk of missing out on immunization because of the COVID-19 pandemic.



In the year since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, access to critical health programs including immunization have been stalled. Before the pandemic 1 in 5 children in Africa remained unprotected from dangerous diseases like measles, meningitis and yellow fever. Last year, routine immunization services in <a href="https://www.afro.who.int/news/who-and-experts-call-urgent-action-safely-resume-immunization-services-amid-covid-19-pandemic">at least 15 countries</a> in Africa were interrupted, which resulted in outbreaks of measles, cholera, yellow fever and Ebola in Africa. Many countries have resumed routine immunization programmes and organized immunization catch-up campaigns since then, but we expect immunization coverage rates to fall by 2-3% this year.



Immunization has been one of the most powerful tools that has improved child survival on the continent. In the last couple of decades, immunization progress has had a huge impact on diseases like cervical cancer, hepatitis, Ebola and meningitis A. In August 2020, Africa was declared <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/25-08-2020-global-polio-eradication-initiative-applauds-who-african-region-for-wild-polio-free-certification">wild polio-free</a>, marking the second disease to be eradicated from the Region since the elimination of smallpox 40 years ago. And new vaccines have been rolled out across the region to protect against diseases such as pneumonia, rotavirus, and more. These victories stand as a powerful testament to the value of vaccines – value we cannot afford to lose.



This year’s African Vaccination Week (24-30 April), whose theme is ‘Vaccines Bring Us Closer”, serves as an opportunity to reflect on the gains we have made toward creating a world where the most vulnerable among us are protected; a world where diseases like wild polio virus are no longer a danger; where all African children can grow up without the threat of vaccine-preventable diseases and can live fuller and longer lives.



COVID-19 may have temporarily set us back, but we must still aspire for this world. We have a chance to rebuild what has been shattered, and to do so in a way that assures current and future generations of a life free of vaccine-preventable diseases and avoidable death and disability.



By increasing access to routine immunization, countries can improve health outcomes and advance efforts to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). They also stand to benefit from the ripple effects of immunization, which is estimated to deliver a return of USD44 in <a href="https://www.unicef.org/immunization">economic benefits</a> for every USD1 spent on childhood immunizations globally, making it one of the most effective and cost-effective public health tools at our disposal.



When African Heads of State endorsed the Addis Declaration on Immunization (ADI) in January 2017, they set the foundation for future immunization programs aimed at ensuring that everyone in Africa – regardless of who they are or where they live – receives the full benefits of immunization. Today, this commitment is more important than it has ever been before.



Every country must recommit to these promises and act boldly, and with urgency, if we are to succeed. Leaders must prioritise financial resources toward routine immunization drives; invest in health care systems and professionals that can deliver vaccines to everyone, everywhere; empower local leaders and build trust around vaccines. They must also advance vaccine research and development, manufacturing, and distribution on the continent.



This is a crucial moment for renewed political momentum to enable countries to build their immunization systems equitably, and for citizens to hold their leaders accountable. This will protect millions from preventable disease and is a critical component of rebuilding health systems for stronger and healthier societies, both during and after COVID-19.



We cannot afford to lose any more lives to vaccine-preventable diseases, not when we have the power to save lives through immunization.

Dr.-Moeti…

Vaccines Bring Us Closer to a Fairer World

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="643" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/42682692912_81593d77ee_k-820x643.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-402724" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/42682692912_81593d77ee_k-820x643.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/42682692912_81593d77ee_k-300x235.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/42682692912_81593d77ee_k-768x603.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/42682692912_81593d77ee_k-1536x1205.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/42682692912_81593d77ee_k.jpg 2047w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>President Cyril Ramaphosa Photo: via Flickr</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, May 10 (Reuters) &#8211; South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday that if wealthy nations hogged COVID-19 shots while millions in poor countries died waiting for them it would amount to &#8220;vaccine apartheid&#8221;.



South Africa and India have been pushing for a waiver on some intellectual property (IP) rights for vaccines and medicines at the World Trade Organization.



U.S. President Joe Biden backed the proposal last week, though it may still take months to reach a deal.



Ramaphosa called on South Africans to support the waiver in a weekly newsletter, saying vaccines should be &#8220;a global public good&#8221;.



&#8220;It is about affirming our commitment to the advancement of equality and human rights, not just in our own country but around the world,&#8221; he wrote.



&#8220;A situation in which the populations of advanced, rich countries are safely inoculated while millions in poorer countries die in the queue would be tantamount to vaccine apartheid.&#8221;



Sub-Saharan Africa has administered the fewest vaccines relative to its population of any region, with roughly 8 doses per 1,000 people versus 150 doses per 1,000 people globally, according to the World Health Organization.



Ramaphosa recalled that twenty years ago South Africa faced off against &#8220;big pharma&#8221; over efforts to import and manufacture affordable generic antiretroviral medicines to treat people with HIV/AIDS.



&#8220;Years later, the world is in the grip of another deadly pandemic in the form of COVID-19. And once again, South Africa is waging a struggle that puts global solidarity to the test,&#8221; he said.



Ramaphosa said South Africa was one of only five countries on the African continent able to manufacture vaccines and that there was a need for new capacity to be built.



South Africa has ordered enough COVID-19 vaccines for 46 million of its 60 million people via bilateral deals with Johnson &amp; Johnson (J&amp;J) and Pfizer. The J&amp;J shots will be made locally by Aspen Pharmacare. 



(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

42682692912_81593d77ee_k

South Africa warns of ‘vaccine apartheid’ if rich countries hog shots

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="788" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Okonjo-Iweala-820x788.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-369148" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Okonjo-Iweala-820x788.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Okonjo-Iweala-300x288.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Okonjo-Iweala-768x738.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Okonjo-Iweala-1065x1024.jpg 1065w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Okonjo-Iweala-696x669.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Okonjo-Iweala-1068x1027.jpg 1068w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Okonjo-Iweala.jpg 1295w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former finance minister of Nigeria, co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate</figcaption></figure>



ROME, May 7 (Reuters) &#8211; A United States&#8217; proposal to discuss waiving patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines will intensify talks on the issue within the World Trade Organisation, the WTO director general said on Friday.



Speaking at an online conference, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said there were arguments for and against a waiver, but she was &#8220;sure (the proposal) will give impetus&#8221; to negotiations.



Aside from the patent issue, the WTO chief said there were other aspects that needed to be addressed to improve vaccine supplies, such as reducing export restrictions so that supply chains can work efficiently.



At the event organised by the European University Institute in Florence, Okonjo-Iweala said it was also necessary to increase production capacity in emerging countries, noting that Africa currently imports almost all its vaccines.



She said she hoped WTO members would &#8220;come together&#8221; to address all these issues to help increase vaccine volumes. 



(Reporting By Gavin Jones, editing by Angelo Amante)

Okonjo-Iweala

U.S. support for COVID patent waiver will push WTO talks, says WTO chief

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Pfizer-BioNTech_COVID-19_vaccine_2020_D-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-403377" width="825" height="550" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Pfizer-BioNTech_COVID-19_vaccine_2020_D-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Pfizer-BioNTech_COVID-19_vaccine_2020_D-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Pfizer-BioNTech_COVID-19_vaccine_2020_D-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Pfizer-BioNTech_COVID-19_vaccine_2020_D-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Pfizer-BioNTech_COVID-19_vaccine_2020_D-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 825px) 100vw, 825px" /><figcaption>Army Spc. Angel Laureano holds a vial of the COVID-19 vaccine, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., Dec. 14, 2020. (DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando. Photo: via Wikimedia Commons</figcaption></figure>



BRUSSELS, May 6 (Reuters) &#8211; President Joe Biden threw his support behind waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines in a sharp U.S. reversal, but it could take months for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to hammer out any deal.



Before Biden&#8217;s announcement on Wednesday, India and South Africa confirmed their intention to draft a new waiver proposal at a WTO General Council meeting, prompting the body&#8217;s new Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to express hope for &#8220;a pragmatic solution&#8221;.



The two countries want to ease rules of the WTO&#8217;s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) agreement. WTO decisions are based on consensus, so all 164 members must agree.



WHERE ARE THE TALKS NOW?



Ten WTO meetings in seven months have failed to produce a breakthrough, with 60 proposal sponsors from emerging economies, backed by a chorus of campaign groups, Nobel laureates and former world leaders. They are pitted against richer developed countries, such as Switzerland and members of the European Union, where many pharmaceutical companies are based.



After the 10th round on April 30, India and South Africa said they would revise their text from October in time for the next TRIPS council meeting in the second half of May before further discussion on June 8-9.



U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Wednesday she would pursue &#8220;text-based negotiations&#8221; on the WTO waiver, the standard but tedious process for trade deal talks.



Negotiators trade texts with their preferred wording, then try to find common ground, sometimes leaving blank spaces for thorny differences to be settled by politicians.



Not only are the negotiations expected to be lengthy, they are also likely to result in a waiver that is significantly narrower in scope and shorter in duration than the one initially proposed by India and South Africa, trade experts said.



All 164 WTO member countries must reach consent on such decisions, with any one member able to veto them, so there could be a lot of red pencils out. Negotiations are likely to be held in a mixture of virtual and in-person meetings.



World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday the process needed to be completed as soon as possible. The WHO said in April that of 700 million vaccines globally administered, only 0.2% had been in low-income countries.



THE PROPONENTS&#8217; ARGUMENT



The Indian/South African proposal in October says property rights such as patents, industrial designs, copyright and protection of undisclosed information hinder timely access to affordable vaccines and medicines essential to combat COVID-19.



They say the waiver should last for an unspecified time period, with an annual review until it terminates, and call for unhindered global sharing of technology and know-how.



They say there cannot be a repeat of the early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, when a lack of access to life-saving medicines cost millions of African lives. In 2020, over half of all people living with HIV were in South and East Africa, according to UNAIDS.



The WHO head and 375 civil society and campaign groups such as Doctors Without Borders back the proposal. Former leaders from Britain&#8217;s Gordon Brown to the former Soviet Union&#8217;s Mikhail Gorbachev had jointly written to Biden urging him to support it.



THE COUNTER VIEW



Big drug companies generally oppose waiving rights to their intellectual property. The main Western producers are Moderna , Johnson &amp; Johnson, AstraZeneca and jointly Pfizer and BioNTech. In October, Moderna did though say it would not enforce its COVID-19 vaccine patents during the pandemic.



Big Pharma says vaccine development is unpredictable and costly and that strong intellectual property protection helped provide the incentive for the development of vaccines in record time and will do so again in work on tackling new variants or in a future pandemic.



Proponents counter that some of the money was public funds.



Big Pharma also says vaccine-making is difficult &#8211; witness the production problems non-specialist AstraZeneca has faced &#8211; so suspending patents alone will not bring more shots.



Complex vaccines require deep cooperation between developers and manufacturers. Any failure to make them properly could undermine public confidence in safety, the companies say.



They also point to over 260 partnership agreements already in place for production and distribution and comment that, under the existing TRIPS agreement, governments can allow producers to make a patented product without the consent of the patent owner. Developing countries have such &#8220;compulsory licences&#8221; to push down prices for HIV/AIDS medication from 2002 to 2007.



(Writing by Philip Blenkinsop and Nick Macfie; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

COVID-19 vaccine patent waiver talks could still take months

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-104899247-820x593.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-393037" width="837" height="605" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-104899247-820x593.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-104899247-300x217.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-104899247-768x556.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-104899247-1536x1111.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-104899247-scaled.jpg 2048w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-104899247-1110x803.jpg 1110w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 837px) 100vw, 837px" /><figcaption>Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director for the World Bank Group, discusses how to increase economic opportunities for adolescent girls and young women during the Adolescent Girls Initiative in Washington DC October 6, 2010. AFP PHOTO / Kimihiro Hoshino (Photo credit should read KIMIHIRO HOSHINO/AFP via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



ENEVA, May 5 (Reuters) &#8211; The world cannot act soon enough to put idle manufacturing capacity to work making COVID-19 vaccines to help redress a massive imbalance in global supply, the head of the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday.



WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatments was &#8220;both the moral and economic issue of our time&#8221;. The World Health Organization said in April that of 700 million vaccines globally administered, only 0.2% had been in low-income countries.



Okonjo-Iweala told a meeting of the 164-member WTO that those who had ordered more vaccines than they needed must share with others. Members should also address export restrictions and bureaucracy disrupting vital medical supply chains.



She urged governments to work with manufacturers to use production capacity available in countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, South Africa, Indonesia and Senegal that could be turned around in a matter of months.



Production needed to rise from the 5 billion doses produced today to the 10.8 billion being forecast for this year to 15 billion, in particular if booster doses would be needed.



The debate on vaccine inequity at the WTO has centred a proposal by India and South Africa to waive intellectual property rights, at least for the duration of the pandemic.



Ten meetings of WTO members have failed to achieve a breakthrough and Wednesday&#8217;s online gathering was no different as 42 countries gave their views. However, members also heard that India and South Africa intend to refine their proposal before another discussion later in May.



Okonjo-Iweala said she was happy to hear of the revised text.



&#8220;I am firmly convinced that once we can sit down with an actual text in front of us, we shall find a pragmatic way forward,&#8221; she said, referring to a balance between developing country demands while protecting research and innovation.



(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director f

Put idle capacity to work now making vaccines, says WTO head

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/50802098581_501c2240d6_b-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-403225" width="837" height="558" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/50802098581_501c2240d6_b-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/50802098581_501c2240d6_b-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/50802098581_501c2240d6_b-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/50802098581_501c2240d6_b.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 837px) 100vw, 837px" /><figcaption>Photo: via Flickr</figcaption></figure>



BRUSSELS, May 5 (Reuters) &#8211; World Trade Organization members will assess on Wednesday signs of progress in talks on a proposal by South Africa and India to waive patent rights on COVID-19 vaccines in order to boost supply to developing countries.



They want to ease rules of the WTO&#8217;s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) agreement. WTO decisions are based on consensus, so all 164 members need to agree.



Ten meetings in seven months have failed to produce a breakthrough, with 60 proposal sponsors from emerging economies, backed by a chorus of campaign groups, Nobel laureates and former world leaders, pitted against richer developed countries, such as Switzerland, the United States and in the European Union, where many pharmaceutical companies are based.



WHERE ARE THE TALKS NOW?



After a 10th round of talks on April 30, the waiver proposal&#8217;s backers said they would revise their text from October in time for the next TRIPS council meeting in the second half of May before a further discussion on June 8-9.



The new text could be more limited than the current proposal.



Norway&#8217;s ambassador Dagfinn Sorli, the council chair who will brief Wednesday&#8217;s WTO General Council, expressed &#8220;careful optimism&#8221;.



World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus talked on Monday of &#8220;encouraging progress&#8221;, but said the process needed to be completed as soon as possible. The WHO said in April that of 700 million vaccines globally administered, only 0.2% had been in low-income countries.



THE PROPONENTS ARGUMENT



The Indian/South African proposal in October says property rights such as patents, industrial designs, copyright and protection of undisclosed information hinder timely access to affordable vaccines and medicines essential to combat COVID-19.



They say the waiver should last for an unspecified time period, with an annual review until it terminates, and call for unhindered global sharing of technology and know-how.



They say there cannot be a repeat of the early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, when a lack of access to life-saving medicines cost at least 11 million African lives.



The WHO head and 375 civil society and campaign groups such as Doctors Without Borders back the proposal and former leaders from Britain&#8217;s Gordon Brown to Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union have jointly written to U.S. President Joe Biden urging him to support it.



THE COUNTER VIEW



Big drug companies oppose patent waivers, as do Britain, Switzerland and the United States. The main Western producers are Moderna, Johnson &amp; Johnson, AstraZeneca and jointly Pfizer and BioNTech.



They say vaccine development is unpredictable and costly and that strong IP protection helped provide the incentive for the development of vaccines in record time and will do so again in work on tackling new variants or in a future pandemic.



Proponents counter that some of the money was public funds.



Big Pharma also says vaccine-making is difficult &#8211; witness the production problems non-specialist AstraZeneca has faced &#8211; so suspending patents alone will not bring more shots.



Complex vaccines require deep cooperation between developers and manufacturers. Any failure to make them properly could undermine public confidence in vaccine safety, they say.



They also point to over 260 partnership agreements already in place for production and distribution and comment that, under the existing TRIPS agreement, governments can allow produces to make a patented product without the consent of the patent owner. Developing countries have such &#8220;compulsory licences&#8221; to push down prices for HIV/AIDS medication from 2002 to 2007.



The situation though is fluid. In Brazil, the only developing country to oppose the waiver, the Senate has passed a bill to suspend COVID-19 vaccine patents. It has become quieter at the WTO since April.



The White House said last week it was considering options to maximise global supply of vaccines, including backing the waiver.



THIRD WAY



WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has suggested a &#8220;third way&#8221; as a compromise, laying out global action to increase vaccine access after a meeting with producers, governments and others.



She urged vaccine makers to increase technology transfer to bring in new manufacturing capacity and to be transparent on contracts and pricing.



U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told the same meeting that extraordinary times required courage and sacrifice from governments and leaders &#8211; but also from industry. On Tuesday, she said economic recovery depended on addressing global vaccine inequity. 



(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

50802098581_501c2240d6_b

COVID-19 vaccine patents dominate global trade talks

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106867803-1618348382287-india.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-403041" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106867803-1618348382287-india.jpg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106867803-1618348382287-india-300x169.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>A woman wearing a protective face mask walks past a graffiti, amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on a street in Mumbai, India, March 30, 2021. Francis Mascarenhas | Reuters</figcaption></figure>



India’s second wave of Covid-19 infections shows no signs of slowing down as the country’s overwhelmed health-care system faces supply shortages for hospital beds, oxygen, medicines and vaccines.



The World Health Organization said last week that one in every three new coronavirus cases globally is being reported in India.



Prime Minister&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/narendra-modi/">Narendra Modi’s</a>&nbsp;government is facing criticism for allowing large crowds to gather for religious festivals and election rallies in various parts of the country.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00993-4/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Commentators said the mass gatherings</a>&nbsp;likely&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/28/india-covid-second-wave.html">turned into super spreader events</a>.



Cases in the second wave started rising in February, when India reported an average of about 10,000 infections a day. But the situation progressively worsened in April, ending the month by repeatedly setting new global records for daily cases. India kicked off May by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1715267" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reporting more than 400,000 new cases</a>.



Nearly 7 million cases were reported for the month, a huge share of the more than 19 million India has recorded during the entire pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="409" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876907-1619909921648-20210501-9XKJY-daily-covid-cases-in-india.png" alt="" class="wp-image-403042" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876907-1619909921648-20210501-9XKJY-daily-covid-cases-in-india.png 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876907-1619909921648-20210501-9XKJY-daily-covid-cases-in-india-300x166.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></figure>



Scientists say the spike in cases is partially due to variants of the coronavirus circulating in India at the moment.



“There is at least emergence of two important dominant variants, one is a U.K. variant, one is an Indian variant,” Manoj Murhekar, director of the National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai, told CNBC on Friday.



The Indian government&nbsp;<a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/in-punjab-80-of-cases-are-due-to-the-uk-variant-of-covid-19-harsh-vardhan-11617764417579.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly said last month that 80% of cases in Punjab</a>&nbsp;were due to the highly contagious U.K. variant, which is known as B.1.1.7.



Meanwhile, the Indian variant is known as B.1.617 and has multiple sub-lineages with slightly different characteristic mutations. The WHO classified it as a variant of interest in its <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update-on-covid-19---27-april-2021" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">epidemiological update on the pandemic last week</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="394" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876913-1619910030536-20210501-0Ofsd-india-s-hardest-hit-states.png" alt="" class="wp-image-403048" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876913-1619910030536-20210501-0Ofsd-india-s-hardest-hit-states.png 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876913-1619910030536-20210501-0Ofsd-india-s-hardest-hit-states-300x160.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></figure>



Maharashtra, which is home to India’s financial capital Mumbai, is the hardest hit state and also the epicenter for the second wave.



India’s richest state went into&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/india-covid-19-second-wave-over-200000-new-coronavirus-cases.html">a lockdown in mid-April</a>&nbsp;to break the chain of transmission.<a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/maharashtra-government-extends-lockdown-like-curbs-till-may-15/articleshow/82312890.cms" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;Reports said</a>&nbsp;Maharashtra’s state government extended restrictions until May 15.



Murhekar told CNBC that at the moment, very little is known about what proportion of the infected cases are due to a variant. He said India needs to step up its surveillance for variants so that there’s meaningful data from each region and state on which variants are circulating in each.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="409" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876908-1619909983425-20210501-NvGjk-daily-covid-deaths-in-india.png" alt="" class="wp-image-403046" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876908-1619909983425-20210501-NvGjk-daily-covid-deaths-in-india.png 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876908-1619909983425-20210501-NvGjk-daily-covid-deaths-in-india-300x166.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></figure>



In April, India crossed 200,000 reported deaths. JHU data showed more than 48,000 people lost their lives to the disease last month.



Though the death rate is comparatively low, it is likely that there is an undercounting of fatalities as&nbsp;<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/29/india/india-covid-deaths-crematoriums-intl-hnk-dst/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">multiple media reports</a>&nbsp;suggest crematoriums and burial grounds are&nbsp;<a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/in-bhopal-official-covid-toll-in-april-is-109-but-over-2500-at-pyres-graves-7299788/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">overwhelmed with bodies</a>&nbsp;of those who died from Covid-19.



The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/26/india-reports-record-new-covid-cases-for-fifth-straight-day.html">international community has responded</a>&nbsp;with promises to send help to India, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/28/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-delivers-emergency-covid-19-assistance-for-india/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$100 million in medical aid from the United States</a>.



Experts have said that India’s best shot at tackling the outbreak is by stepping up its vaccination efforts.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="409" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876909-1619910004820-20210501-105uZ-india-s-vaccination-drive.png" alt="" class="wp-image-403049" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876909-1619910004820-20210501-105uZ-india-s-vaccination-drive.png 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876909-1619910004820-20210501-105uZ-india-s-vaccination-drive-300x166.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></figure>



Since launching its mass inoculation drive in January, India has administered more than 154 million vaccine doses as of April 30,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1715267" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to government data</a>.



That implies a little over 10% of the population has received at least one of the two shots required. But the percentage of people who have completed their vaccination is only about 2% of the total population, at around 27.9 million as of April.



Starting in May, India is opening vaccinations to anyone age 18 and older.



Murhekar said that the kind of herd immunity India needs to reduce transmission can only be achieved through vaccination.



“It will take many days and many months, basically, till we have a critical mass, which is vaccinated against Covid,” he added.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="409" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876912-1619909902440-20210501-5gqhm-vaccine-doses-administered-in-april.png" alt="" class="wp-image-403050" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876912-1619909902440-20210501-5gqhm-vaccine-doses-administered-in-april.png 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/106876912-1619909902440-20210501-5gqhm-vaccine-doses-administered-in-april-300x166.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></figure>



But the country is facing vaccine shortages and several states have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-posts-record-daily-rise-covid-19-cases-386452-2021-04-30/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly run out of supply</a>.



The supply crunch is expected to last through July, according to the CEO of India’s top vaccine maker, Serum Institute, which is producing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/AZN-GB" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AstraZeneca’s</a>&nbsp;shot. Adar Poonawalla&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/01784671-3834-49d8-9640-fc5d95f92eaf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recently told the Financial Times</a>&nbsp;that his firm is set to increase vaccine production capacity from about 60 million to 70 million doses a month to 100 million.



The other vaccine being administered is Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.



New Delhi has recently approved the Russia-developed Sputnik V and authorized&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1711558" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">foreign-made vaccines that have been granted emergency approval</a>&nbsp;by the U.S., U.K., European Union, Japan and World Health Organization-listed agencies.



—&nbsp;CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed to this report.

106867803-1618348382287-india

India accounts for 1 in 3 new Covid cases being recorded. Here is its second wave in 5 charts

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106870096-1618828247961-gettyimages-1232397672-AFP_98B2EC.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-402920" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106870096-1618828247961-gettyimages-1232397672-AFP_98B2EC.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/106870096-1618828247961-gettyimages-1232397672-AFP_98B2EC-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>A man with his bicycle on a street in the old quarters of New Delhi on April 19, 2021, as India’s capital will impose a week-long lockdown from tonight, officials said, while the megacity struggles to contain a huge surge in Covid-19 cases with hospitals running out of beds and oxygen supplies low. Sajjad Hussain | AFP | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



India reported a new record rise in daily Covid-19 cases on Friday, in the middle of a deadly second wave that has crippled its health-care system.



Health ministry data showed there were 386,452 cases over a 24-hour period — the highest daily increase globally. At least 3,498 people have died in that time.



After the first wave peaked in September, it took the South Asian country aboutsix months for cases to rise from about 6 million to cross 12 million by end of March. In April alone, India reported more than 6.6 million cases as the cumulative total rose to 18.76 million.



India is the second worst-hit country in the world, in terms of the total reported cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. However, recent reports have suggested that India’s death toll is being underreported.



Prime Minister&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/narendra-modi/">Narendra Modi’s</a>&nbsp;government faces growing criticism for allowing large crowds to gather for religious festivals and election rallies in various parts of the country.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00993-4/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Commentators said the mass gatherings</a>&nbsp;— where millions sometimes gathered – likely&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/28/india-covid-second-wave.html">turned into super spreader events</a>.



The World Health Organization said this week that multiple mutated variants of the coronavirus are circulating in India, likely fueling the surge. Hospitals are overwhelmed due to a shortage of beds and supplies, including much-needed oxygen and medicines.



Experts have said that India’s best shot at combating the pandemic is by vaccinating a majority of its more than 1.3 billion population to achieve herd immunity, where the disease can no longer spread quickly because most people in the population have either been infected or vaccinated and have become immune to it. To date, the country administered more than 150 million vaccine doses but only a small percentage of the population completed thetwo required doses.



Starting May 1, India will allow those between 18 and 45 years old to get inoculated.



But the country faces vaccine shortages despite being the world’s largest producer of vaccines. The situation is expected to exacerbate as more people sign up to receive their shots.



India’s financial capital Mumbai will&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/mybmc/status/1387787158719590401" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stop vaccinating people between April 30 and May 2</a>&nbsp;after running out of stock, according to the city’s civic body. “All efforts are being made to make more stock available &amp; resume the drive,” said the municipal corporation of Greater Mumbai. Maharashtra, where Mumbai is situated, is the epicenter of India’s second wave of infections.



Media reported that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/26/india-reports-record-new-covid-cases-for-fifth-straight-day.html">international aid has started arriving in India</a>. Reuters said the first U.S. flight carrying oxygen cylinders, regulators, rapid diagnostic kits, N95 masks and pulse oximeters arrived in Delhi on Friday.



The United States said this week&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/28/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-delivers-emergency-covid-19-assistance-for-india/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">it will send more than $100 million in medical aid</a>&nbsp;to India, including materials the South Asian country needs to ramp up vaccine production and make over 20 million doses.

106870096-1618828247961-gettyimages-1232397672-AFP_98B2EC

India reports record Covid cases again — with over 386,000 new infections

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1232589651-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-402835" width="839" height="560" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1232589651-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1232589651-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1232589651-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1232589651-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1232589651-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 839px) 100vw, 839px" /><figcaption>A medical worker inoculates a man with the Covaxin Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine, at a health centre in New Delhi on April 29, 2021. (Photo by TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / AFP) (Photo by TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



NAIROBI, April 29 (Reuters) &#8211; The raging state of the COVID-19 pandemic is India is a wake-up call for Africa that its governments and citizens must not let their guards down, the African Union&#8217;s disease control agency warned on Thursday.



African nations generally do not have sufficient numbers of health care workers, hospital beds, oxygen supplies, and the continent of 1.3 billion would be even more overwhelmed than India if cases surged in a similar way, said John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.



&#8220;We are watching with total disbelief…What is happening in India cannot be ignored by our continent,&#8221; he told reporters.



Nkengasong urged Africans to wear masks and avoid large gatherings, warning: &#8220;We cannot and should not find ourselves in (India&#8217;s) scenario because of the very fragile nature of our health systems.&#8221;



The AU will convene a meeting with all African ministers of health on May 8, Nkengasong said, to &#8220;put everybody on alert&#8221;.



India, with 1.35 billion people, has a similar population size to the African continent, yet Africa has even weaker health systems, and unlike India does not manufacture significant quantities of drugs or vaccines, he added.



Heeding public health guidance is critical in Africa at the moment because the continent&#8217;s rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is hindered by the crisis in India, Nkengasong said.



The bulk of the vaccines supplied so far to Africa via the global vaccine-sharing facility COVAX have been AstraZeneca shots manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. India suspended its exports of the shot in March to cope with rising domestic demand.



It remains unclear when exports will resume, Nkengasong said on Thursday, warning the situation in India could impact the predictability of Africa&#8217;s vaccine rollout &#8220;for the weeks and perhaps months to come&#8221;.



Africa could benefit from additional supplies if two Chinese-made vaccines secure approval from the World Health Organisation next week, a WHO Africa official said.



&#8220;If we have more vaccines that have been approved for WHO pre-qualification, we know that more of these candidates can enter into our continent without any further issues,&#8221; Phionah Atuhebwe told an online weekly briefing.



Africa recorded nearly 76,000 new COVID-19 infections from April 19-25, a 8% decline from the previous week, according to Africa CDC data.



India reported more than 379,000 new COVID-19 cases and 3,645 new deaths on Thursday alone. It was the highest number of deaths reported in a single day in the world&#8217;s second most populous country since the start of the pandemic. 



(Reporting by Maggie Fick with additional reporting by Duncan Miriri Editing by Mark Heinrich)

INDIA-HEALTH-VIRUS-VACCINE

India’s COVID-19 emergency is wake-up call to Africa -AU health chief

April 29 (Reuters) &#8211; Indians struggled to register online for a mass vaccination drive set to begin at the weekend as the country&#8217;s toll from the coronavirus surged past 200,000 on Wednesday, worsened by shortages of hospital beds and medical oxygen.



DEATHS AND INFECTIONS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals https://apac1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news</li></ul>



EUROPE



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Russian and Chinese media are systematically seeking to sow mistrust in Western COVID-19 vaccines in their latest disinformation campaigns aimed at dividing the West, according to a European report.</li><li>The coronavirus situation is improving in France and President Emmanuel Macron will outline on Friday how restrictions will be progressively relaxed.</li><li>Britain will buy 60 million more doses of Pfizer/BioNTech&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine in a deal that more than doubles the country&#8217;s supply of the shot ahead of a booster programme later this year.</li></ul>



ASIA-PACIFIC



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>China&#8217;s aviation regulator will slightly relax suspension rules on international flights due to COVID-19 as it seeks to facilitate more flexible capacity arrangement for airlines.</li><li>About 100 South Korean athletes and coaches travelling to Tokyo for the Olympics this year will receive their first doses of COVID-19 vaccine, as the country struggles to keep its inoculation drive on track amid supply shortages.</li><li>Taiwan has bought 150 oxygen concentrators and aims to send them to India this weekend to help it deal with a massive increase in COVID-19 infections, and is also looking at providing further aid, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said.</li><li>Australia&#8217;s medicines regulator will investigate two deaths for possible links to the COVID-19 vaccine, raising fresh concerns as the country seeks to accelerate an immunisation program that has widely missed its initial vaccination targets.</li><li>Restrictions on movement and gatherings in the Philippines&#8217; capital region and four nearby provinces will be extended for another two weeks.</li></ul>



AMERICAS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The United States is sending supplies worth more than $100 million to India to help it fight a surge of COVID-19 cases, the White House said.</li><li>Ontario will introduce three paid sick days for all workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government announced, as hospitals struggle through a third wave of infections largely driven by coronavirus variants passed through workplaces.</li><li>Brazil is on the verge of registering 400,000 coronavirus deaths this week, after the Health Ministry reported 3,163 new COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 398,185.</li><li>Mexico will produce Russia&#8217;s Sputnik V vaccine domestically, its foreign minister said on a visit to Moscow.</li><li>Argentina&#8217;s government said it met with representatives of drugmaker AstraZeneca to ask about &#8220;difficulties&#8221; in the production of its COVID-19 vaccine and supply of it to the country.</li></ul>



MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Turkey has signed a deal for 50 million doses of Russia&#8217;s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine that will start arriving next month and should help address a short-term fall in supply.</li></ul>



MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Moderna said it is boosting manufacturing capacity for its COVID-19 vaccine and expects to make up to 3 billion doses in 2022, more than twice its previous forecast.</li></ul>



ECONOMIC IMPACT



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Asian shares rose in early trade on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it was too early to consider rolling back emergency support for the economy, and as U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled plans for a $1.8 trillion stimulus package.</li></ul>



(Compiled by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Aditya Soni, Federico Maccioni and Juliette Portala; Edited by Arun Koyyur and Shounak Dasgupta)

Novel coronavirus sars-cov-2

April 28 (Reuters) &#8211; India&#8217;s COVID-19 death toll surged past 200,000 on Wednesday as shortages of oxygen, medical supplies and hospital staff compounded a record number of new cases of the virus.



DEATHS AND INFECTIONS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals https://apac1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news.</li></ul>



EUROPE



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>British enthusiasm for the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has faded in the past month, reflecting rising unease about its possible links to rare adverse side effects, though overall UK confidence in vaccines is high, an updated survey has found.</li><li>Portugal&#8217;s state of emergency will end on Friday as infections drop sharply and the country prepares to further ease a strict lockdown imposed more than three months ago.</li><li>France&#8217;s main COVID-19 indicators all showed some signs of improvement on Tuesday as French President Emmanuel Macron plans to relax restrictions in the next few days.</li></ul>



ASIA-PACIFIC



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>South Korea said it will offer some exemptions to mandatory quarantine measures for people who have been fully inoculated against COVID-19, in an effort to encourage more vaccinations.</li><li>Japan&#8217;s government plans to spend 500 billion yen ($4.59 billion) from emergency reserves to support businesses hit by measures taken under a state of emergency to fight the pandemic, news agency Kyodo said.</li></ul>



AMERICAS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The White House is considering options for maximizing global production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines at the lowest cost, including backing a proposed waiver of intellectual property rights, but no decision has been made, press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday.</li><li>Senior U.S. officials on Tuesday pledged sustained support for India in helping it deal with the world&#8217;s worst current surge of COVID-19 infections, warning the country is still at the &#8220;front end&#8221; of the crisis and overcoming it will take some time.</li><li>Fully vaccinated people can safely engage in outdoor activities like walking and hiking without wearing masks, but should use face-coverings in public spaces where they are required, U.S. health regulators and President Joe Biden said.</li><li>The province of Quebec reported Canada&#8217;s first death of a patient from a rare blood clot condition after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.</li><li>The Biden administration said it was easing travel restrictions on Chinese and other international students into the United States this fall.</li></ul>



MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Around 250 tour guides from Kenyan national parks lined up in downtown Nairobi to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, as part of a government effort to revive the tourism sector.</li></ul>



MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai discussed increasing COVID-19 vaccine production in a virtual meeting on Tuesday with an executive with drugmaker Novavax, Tai&#8217;s office said in a statement.</li><li>The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not found a link between heart inflammation and COVID-19 vaccines, the agency&#8217;s Director Rochelle Walensky said.</li></ul>



ECONOMIC IMPACT



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>U.S. consumer confidence jumped to a 14-month high in April as increased vaccinations against COVID-19 and additional fiscal stimulus allowed for more services businesses to reopen, boosting demand and hiring by companies.</li></ul>



(Compiled by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Devika Syamnath and Anita Kobylinska; Edited by Arun Koyyur and Shounak Dasgupta)

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/800px-Logo_of_the_World_Health_Organization.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-402524" width="839" height="559" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/800px-Logo_of_the_World_Health_Organization.jpg 800w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/800px-Logo_of_the_World_Health_Organization-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/800px-Logo_of_the_World_Health_Organization-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 839px) 100vw, 839px" /><figcaption>WHO Photo: via Wikimedia Commons</figcaption></figure>



GENEVA, April 23 (Reuters) &#8211; Coronavirus vaccines remain out of reach in the poorest countries, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report on Friday, marking the first anniversary of the COVAX dose-sharing facility.



WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has repeatedly denounced inequities in vaccine distribution and urged wealthier countries to share excess doses to help inoculate health workers in low-income countries.



More than 3 million people have died in the pandemic worldwide.



&#8220;Nearly 900 million vaccine doses have been administered globally, but over 81% have gone to high- or upper middle-income countries, while low-income countries have received just 0.3%,&#8221; Tedros said about the ACT (Access to COVID-19 Tools) Accelerator set up a year ago.



He told a briefing he was concerned about the rising caseload in India.



India reported the world&#8217;s highest daily tally of coronavirus infections for a second day on Friday, surpassing 330,000 new cases, as it struggles with a health system overwhelmed by patients and plagued by accidents and lack of medical oxygen.



&#8220;The situation in India is a devastating reminder of what the virus can do,&#8221; he told a virtual briefing.



French President Emmanuel Macron said that one in six Europeans had been vaccinated, one in five in North America but just one in 100 in Africa.



&#8220;It&#8217;s unacceptable,&#8221; he said.



South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called on pharmaceutical companies to transfer mRNA vaccine technology to low- and middle-income countries &#8220;free of intellectual property barriers&#8221;.



&#8220;Let us together challenge vaccine nationalism and ensure that protecting intellectual property rights does not come at the expense of human lives,&#8221; he added.



&#8220;Continued lack of financial support for the ACT Accelerator poses a major obstacle for its ability to deliver at scale&#8221; Dag Ulstein, Norwegian minister of international development, told the same briefing.



COVAX, which has shipped 40.5 million doses to 118 countries so far, aims to secure 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.



On Thursday, COVAX, co-run by the Gavi Vaccine Alliance and WHO, said it was seeking to bolster its supplies of vaccines for poor countries from new manufacturers as it aims to mitigate supply problems of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India, its main shot so far.



&#8220;Low-income countries test less than 5% as much as high-income countries, and the majority of countries still have trouble accessing sufficient oxygen and dexamethasone,&#8221; Tedros said. He was referring to an inexpensive steroid found to help patients suffering severe COVID-19, the only WHO-approved treatment for the disease. 



(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, Emma Farge and Alexander Winning; Writing by Stehanie Nebehay and Nick Macfie; editing by Louise Heavens)

800px-Logo_of_the_World_Health_Organization

WHO, Macron denounce vaccine inequity as COVAX scheme marks first year

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/42195571561_efce18ae1f_k-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-402471" width="840" height="560" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/42195571561_efce18ae1f_k-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/42195571561_efce18ae1f_k-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/42195571561_efce18ae1f_k-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/42195571561_efce18ae1f_k-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/42195571561_efce18ae1f_k.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px" /><figcaption>Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Photo: via Flickr</figcaption></figure>



GENEVA, April 23 (Reuters) &#8211; Coronavirus vaccines remain out of reach in the poorest countries, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report on Friday, marking the first anniversary of the COVAX dose-sharing facility.



&#8220;Nearly 900 million vaccine doses have been administered globally, but over 81% have gone to high- or upper middle-income countries, while low-income countries have received just 0.3%,&#8221; WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said about the ACT (Access to COVID-19 Tools) Accelerator set up a year ago.



Tedros has repeatedly denounced inequities in vaccine distribution and urged wealthier countries to share excess doses to help inoculate health workers in low-income countries. More than 3 million people have died in the pandemic.



COVAX, which has shipped 40.5 million doses to 118 countries so far, aims to secure 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.



On Thursday, COVAX, co-run by the Gavi Vaccine Alliance and WHO, said it was seeking to bolster its supplies of vaccines for poor countries from new manufacturers as it aims to mitigate supply problems of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India, its main shot so far.



&#8220;Low-income countries test less than 5% as much as high-income countries, and the majority of countries still have trouble accessing sufficient oxygen and dexamethasone,&#8221; Tedros said. He was referring to an inexpensive steroid found to help patients suffering severe COVID-19, the only WHO-approved treatment for the disease.



India reported the world&#8217;s highest daily tally of coronavirus cases for a second day on Friday, surpassing 330,000 new cases, as it struggles with a health system overwhelmed by patients and plagued by accidents and lack of medical oxygen. 



(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Nick Macfie)

42195571561_efce18ae1f_k

Tedros denounces vaccine inequity as COVAX sharing scheme marks first year

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/51025166643_362ee14ccb_k-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-402246" width="838" height="559" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/51025166643_362ee14ccb_k-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/51025166643_362ee14ccb_k-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/51025166643_362ee14ccb_k-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/51025166643_362ee14ccb_k-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/51025166643_362ee14ccb_k.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px" /><figcaption>Photo: via Flickr</figcaption></figure>



DAKAR, April 21 (Reuters) &#8211; When Ghana received 50,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from India last month, it hit a frustrating roadblock: it had not trained enough staff to distribute them.



The country was still rolling out shots received in late February from the global vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX, and didn&#8217;t have the capacity to expand that operation, according to the head of Ghana&#8217;s immunisation programme.



Rather than going straight into the arms of health workers, the additional doses were put in cold storage in the capital Accra, Kwame Amponsa-Achiano told Reuters, adding that his team had received two days&#8217; notice about the shipment.



&#8220;We were in the middle of the first campaign,&#8221; Amponsa-Achiano said. &#8220;How do you plan for 50,000 when you already are doing another campaign?&#8221;



The problems faced by Ghana, one of sub-Saharan Africa&#8217;s more economically developed nations, illustrate how a continent with experience in battling deadly infectious diseases has found itself ill-prepared to inoculate people against this pandemic.



Many African countries, already facing a shortage of affordable vaccines, are being stunned by the unprecedented scale of the distribution challenge when doses do arrive.



Authorities do not have enough equipment like masks and cotton wool because of funding shortfalls that could total billions of dollars, according to more than a dozen health experts and some internal government documents seen by Reuters.



They also lack sufficient personnel and training to distribute vaccines at short notice.



While Africa has thus far been relatively unscathed by COVID-19, some experts fear stuttering rollouts could draw out the outbreak in the region, potentially leading to more deaths and economically damaging restrictions in a continent that is already the poorest in the world.



Benjamin Schreiber, COVAX coordinator at the U.N. children&#8217;s agency UNICEF, said logistical problems could mount in the coming weeks and months as countries tried to get vaccines to their general populations.



&#8220;As we start rolling out bigger quantities, we are going to start seeing more issues,&#8221; Schreiber said.



&#8220;The gaps in the healthcare systems will be the gaps that hinder the rollouts,&#8221; he added. &#8220;My worry is that we miss complete communities.&#8221;



NEEDED: MILLIONS OF DOLLARS



Ghana, where the novel coronavirus has infected more than 91,000 and killed over 750, is considered one of the better-prepared countries in Africa to carry out a mass vaccination drive because of its political stability and economic development.



The government aims to initially inoculate 17.6 million people &#8211; about half of its population &#8211; at a cost of $51.7 million, according to a national plan seen by Reuters.



It hopes to cover $7.9 million of that money with a World Bank loan but is short of $43.8 million, described as a &#8220;funding gap&#8221; in the internal government document.



Immunisation chief Amponsa-Achiano said he was not aware that the situation had changed since the plan was formulated in February.



The Ghanaian finance and health ministries did not respond to requests for comment.



Ghana was the first country in the world to receive a shipment from COVAX, taking delivery of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine, manufactured in India, on Feb. 24.



It started its vaccine drive on March 1, and had vaccinated 599,000 people by April 7.



While that vaccination rate is better than many of its African peers &#8211; Ivory Coast vaccinated just over 53,000 people between March 1 and April 6 &#8211; it is far behind the fastest countries globally. Britain, for example, administered doses to about 2 million people in roughly the first month of its drive.



NEEDED: FRIDGES, COTTON WOOL



The Ghanaian national plan shows how even relatively prosperous African nations lack vital equipment.



Money is needed across the board, including $1.5 million for 11 walk-in cold rooms and over 650 fridges to keep vaccines at between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.



About $25 million is needed for supplies and waste management, including 33,600 boxes of face masks, 240,000 bottles of hand sanitizer, and nearly 55,000 rolls of cotton wool, the plan says. About $21 million is needed to train over 171,000 health workers and volunteers.



To add to Ghana&#8217;s challenge, its next COVAX shipments, expected in April and May, have been delayed until June, because India suspended major exports of vaccines manufactured there.



In its 2021 budget, outlined in mid-March, the Ghanaian government allotted 929,296,610 cedis ($160 million) for vaccine acquisition and deployment.



Amponsa-Achiano said, though, it was not clear how much would go towards distribution, or when the funds would materialise.



It is a common problem in Africa, UNICEF&#8217;s Schreiber said.



&#8220;The question is at what point will this funding hit the ground? Will it be in time?&#8221;



CONGO EBOLA OUTBREAKS



Some African authorities are familiar with deadly contagions. Since 2018, Congo has contained four Ebola outbreaks with a vaccine which must be stored at between -60 and -80 degrees Celsius.



But the scale of the COVID-19 vaccination drive is new.



COVAX &#8211; the donor scheme co-led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) &#8211; has delivered over 18 million doses to 41 African countries, according to Reuters data.



That&#8217;s the first wave in a drive expected to deliver 600 million doses to Africa this year, enough to vaccinate 20% of their populations. Russia, China and India have also donated some of their vaccines.



Funding is only one issue delaying vaccine rollouts.



Another is patchy record-keeping in many public health systems, which experts say make it difficult to identify people who should be prioritised because of age or co-morbidities.



Demand for shots is also weak in some countries due to mistrust of health authorities, lack of education about the vaccines and worries about potential side effects.



Spotty electricity and poor transport links in some places add to the challenge, while medical teams will have to negotiate safe passage across parts of Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Somalia and other places where insurgencies rage.



VACCINATING UNTIL END-2022?



John Nkengasong, who heads the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, says it could take until the end of 2022 to vaccinate 60% of the continent&#8217;s 1.3 billion people.



Take the task facing Mali, an impoverished country fighting an Islamist insurgency. It needs $14.7 million to deploy vaccines, including for gasoline, vaccine storage and training, according to an internal government vaccination plan seen by Reuters.



The government will need funding support from the WHO, UNICEF, the GAVI vaccine alliance and the World Bank, the plan says. Those organisations are all looking to provide funding to African nations facing shortfalls.



South Sudan, still racked by violence after a civil war ended in 2018, has seen COVID-19 infect at least 10,300 people and kill more than 100.



It began distributing 132,000 vaccine doses from COVAX on April 7. However, authorities won&#8217;t start administering shots outside the capital Juba and its surrounding county until May at the earliest, said Kawa Tong, a member of a COVID-19 steering committee that advises the government.



&#8220;The key reason is the lack of funds for a rollout outside Juba. The transport of vaccines, training of health workers, community outreach &#8211; all these are tied to funding,&#8221; Tong told Reuters.



Adding to the difficulties, by May the rainy season will be well underway, cutting off transport links to large parts of the country, she said. The vast majority of the 11 million-strong population live outside Juba county.



Atem Riek Anyom, director general for primary healthcare at South Sudan&#8217;s health ministry, said the government had requested World Bank funding, adding that vaccines would soon be deployed across the country.



&#8220;There&#8217;s no challenge in regards to the vaccine rollout,&#8221; he added.



The World Bank, which has a $12 billion fund to help developing countries around the world buy and distribute vaccines, said it was reviewing requests from Mali and South Sudan.



The bank said it has approved $2 billion to 17 countries, including seven in Africa: Ethiopia, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Eswatini, Tunisia, Rwanda and Gambia. 



(Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani in New Delhi, Felix Onuah in Abuja, Libby George in Lagos, Denis Dumo in Juba, Fadimata Kontao in Bamako and Christian Akorlie in Accra Writing by Edward McAllister Editing by Alexandra Zavis and Pravin Char)

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