EU welcomes more vaccines to Namibia
The Deputy Head of the European Union (EU), Gosia Lachut officially witnessed the handing over of the first batch of COVAX AstraZeneca vaccines at an event held at the Central Medical Stores last week.
The EU congratulated Namibia for their management of this process and funding the vaccines by its own means. “We furthermore commend the Namibian Government for its exemplary leadership and actions taken to curb the spread of this pandemic and wish the government success in the roll out of its vaccination programme and at the same time, it is important to acknowledge the significant international effort as well as financial support, which delivered the COVAX facility,” they added.
Although the European flag is not present on vaccine deliveries, but that of COVAX, the EU is the major driver behind the work of COVAX, and together with their member states, the European Investment Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have so far provided £2.2 billion to this initiative.
They explained that this vaccine will help to secure 1.3 billion doses of safe and effective vaccine for 92 low and middle income countries by the end of 2021. Last year alone the EU spent more than 1 billion Euro to support the research and development of vaccines and new therapies to help cure Covid-19, which greatly accelerated the process of producing and exporting vaccines at more affordable prices.
“With out the COVAX Programme it simply would not have been viable e to give all participating countries, regardless of their income levels, early and equal access to Covid-19 vaccines and we remain committed to make the roll-out of #safevaccines a reality in all countries, #TeamEurope, #StrongerTogether,” they concluded.
