- Title: Germany will offer Africa up to 70 mln COVID-19 doses, Merkel says
- Date: 27th August 2021
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (AUGUST 27, 2021) (REUTERS) GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL, CONGO PRESIDENT FELIX TSHILOMBO AND SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE MEDIA MERKEL SPEAKING TO MERKEL'S HANDS NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS TSHILOMBO LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL, SAYING: "The availability and production of vaccines is closely linked to the economic well-being of the African continent. And if today it is the case that we have vaccinated more than 60 percent of our population and in Africa it is 2 percent, then this is, of course, a dramatic injustice that we need to urgently correct and we talked about this today very honestly. And I think that possibilities can be created to produce (vaccines) step by step and to transfer technology." MEDIA RAMAPHOSA LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL, SAYING: "COVAX will now increase its deliveries and Germany will not only be able to give away 30 million vaccine doses this year, but we will be able to give 70 million. We have made our financial contribution to COVAX but now the vaccine needs to quickly get to the people in Africa." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS MEDIA RAMAPHOSA SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, SAYING: "We expressed our disappointment, we expressed our unhappiness and said that it is not fair that Africa has only vaccinated 2 percent of the entire population of the 1.3 billion population and yet the more developed countries in the north have vaccinated up to 60 percent. And we expressed a lot of unhappiness at this inequality that exists and we said there needs to be more equality, there needs to be fairness and it is to this end that Africa and India made a proposal to the World Trade Organisation that there should immediately be a temporary suspension of intellectual property rights so that vaccine production should be spread to other countries as well. Because it is very dangerous and even reckless to have vaccines just being produced in just a few countries in the north and none being done on the African continent." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS END OF NEWS CONFERENCE
- Embargoed: 10th September 2021 19:31
- Keywords: Africa Compact nations EU German Chancellor Angela Merkel Germany Ursula von Der Leyen
- Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
- City: BERLIN, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Europe,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001ES21007
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Germany will make up to 70 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine available to African countries this year, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday, marking an increase from the 30 million it had previously pledged to donate.
"Germany will make available not only 30 million doses of vaccines but it will be as much as 70 million doses," she told a news conference after a summit with African leaders on the G20's Compact with Africa initiative.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said African leaders told the summit "it is not fair that Africa has vaccinated only 2% of the their 1.3 billion population and yet the more developed countries in the north have vaccinated up to 60%."
"All of us in that meeting felt that Africa needs to be given the opportunity and the right to produce vaccines," he said at the joint news conference with Merkel.
Merkel said she was confident that there could be a "transfer step by step of the technology" to allow production of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa.
Merkel has been a big champion of the G20 Compact with Africa.
Launched in 2017 under Germany's G20 presidency, the Compact promotes private investment in Africa, aiming to ease the poverty which, along with political instability and violence, has encouraged large numbers of Africans to head for Europe.
(production: Tanya Wood, Martin Schlicht, Fanny Brodersen) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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