Namibia Welcomes African Union COVID-19 Vaccine Initiative

WINDHOEK, April 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Apr, 2021 ) :Namibia on Thursday welcomed the move by African Union to seal a vaccine supply agreement with Johnson & Johnson which will be manufactured in South Africa and distributed to all 54 member countries.

Namibian Minister of Health and Social Services Kalumbi Shangula described the AU vaccine initiative as coming at the nick of time.

"We are very thankful and welcoming to the AU vaccine initiative that will see the manufacturing and supply of 400 million doses to all countries in the continent. This will greatly assist our push to achieve head immunity," he said.

He said the AU vaccine initiative will supplement the donations from China and India to Namibia as well the country's expected delivery of the vaccine form the COVAX facility.

"We are eagerly awaiting on the arrival of these vaccines and efforts are being made to have these in the country so we vaccinate between 60 to 80 percent of the population to achieve herd immunity," Shangula said.

The Namibian minister said AU, China, India and the World Health Organization have proven that coordination is the best way of dealing with the pandemic.

He also condemned vaccine nationalism.