Tobi Adebayo
President of the African Development Bank (AFDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina has said that Africa should not be labelled and penalized for the new deadly variant of COVID-19 called Omicron.
Adesina made the call in a tweet on Sunday.
The AFDB boss was reacting to the travel ban placed on some African countries by the United States, United Kingdom, the European Union and some countries in Asia.
Adesina tweeted “Africa should not be labelled and penalized for COVID-19 variants and mutations that occur randomly elsewhere in the world. Africa is not the source of COVID-19.
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“There must be global justice, equity and fairness in access to vaccines. The global vaccine supply system has underserved Africa. Protecting one’s home alone in the midst of a forest fire does not work. Put out the forest fire.
“Africa must accelerate the manufacturing of its own vaccines and set up its own ‘healthcare security defence system’. Africa must no longer outsource health security of its 1.8 billion people to the benevolence of others.”
Recall that the B.1.1.529 strain of COVID-19 called Omicron was first detected in South Africa.
