Mauritania receives vaccine donation from France
The AstraZeneca doses were delivered by the global COVAX programme, which aims to supply poorer nations with vaccines.
CAPE TOWN, April 29 (ANA) – The West African nation of Mauritania has received its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines through the COVAX global programme which aims to supply poorer nations with drugs, news agency AFP reported.
It said French President Emmanuel Macron announced the donation on April 23 and called on more developed countries to follow suit at a time of intense competition for short supplies of vaccines.
Mauritania, which has recorded 18, 346 Covid-19 cases since reporting the first one in April last year, received 31,200 doses of vaccines from France’s national stocks.
Cases of the coronavirus have been on a drastic decline since the country experienced a second wave in January.
New infections now average around 30 a day compared with nearly 300 cases at the height of the second wave in December/January, according to data from real-time tracking website Worldometers.
Some 455 deaths have been recorded in the country to date, while just over 17,600 people have recovered from the deadly virus.
Mauritania launched its Covid-19 vaccination campaign at the beginning of March as a shipment of 50,000 doses arrived from China, according to Anadolu News Agency.
Recently, the World Health Organisation said it was concerned that less than two percent of the 690 million Covid-19 vaccine doses administered globally so far had been been in Africa.
WHO regional director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti has repeatedly called for fair access to vaccines if the world is to effectively grapple with the pandemic.
– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa
