Africa is aiming to vaccinate up to 60% of its 1.3 billion people in the next two years, but may need several years of inoculations, John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters."Because of this, local manufacturing becomes imperative so that we can meet our goals," he said.
But the Africa CDC expects to receive only 20% of its vaccine needs through COVAX, and also needs money to distribute the vaccine. He added the continent was working with Afreximbank and the World Bank to see how to raise funds to buy and deliver vaccines. On Thursday, GAVI, a vaccines alliance that co-leads COVAX with the WHO, said COVAX was on track with its goal to secure 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of 2021.