Africa Must Build Medical Supply Production Facility - Ramaphosa

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that the continent needs to build a vibrant and innovative African medical supplies manufacturing capability that meets the health needs of the continent's people. Speaking at the High-Level Virtual Conference on Africa's Vaccine Manufacturing for Health Security, Ramaphosa said throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Africa has demonstrated that it has extensive and substantial capabilities, resources and skills to address the challenges given rise to by the pandemic. "Our task now is to harness all these capabilities, and to draw on the experience of the past year to build a vibrant and innovative African medical supplies manufacturing capability that meets the health needs of the continent's people. This means that in the medium term, we need to expand existing capabilities into regional hubs that serve the continent as a whole," President Ramaphosa said.

As of April 13, 2021, Africa has recorded 4,358,752 confirmed cases of Covid-19 of which 115,974 proved fatal and 3,914,614 resulted in recoveries. Vaccinations administered across the continent to date total 8,871,890.

This article originally appeared on All Africa

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