President Cyril Ramaphosa says any COVID-19 vaccine must be made available to all countries, even if they can’t afford it.
Ramaphosa pushed for request while co-chairing the first meeting of the World Health Organization’s ACT-A facilitation council on Thursday evening.
Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) is a council aimed at speeding up the development, production and equal distribution of a vaccine.
Ramaphosa said the world would not be able to achieve universal health coverage if a Covid-19 vaccine is only available to well-resourced nations.
“Governments may need to subsidize the development of vaccines as an incentive to ensure fast and adequate production,” Ramaphosa said.
“As a global community, we must encourage people to participate in safe clinical trials of different vaccines.”