South Africa's Afrigen aims to make first African COVID-19 jab | COVID-19 Special

Developing nations have called for patent waivers on COVID-19 vaccines for months, so far without success. Now one company is setting up Africa's first mRNA hub in Cape Town with the goal of copying the Moderna vaccine.

A successful vaccination campaign in Africa is a crucial part of eventually drawing a line under the pandemic worldwide. So far, however, only 7-and-a-half percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, according to the World Health Organization.

One problem: Vaccines are not arriving because rich countries are hoarding them. There are also logistical difficulties, with a large rural population.

In South Africa, scientists now want to take the development of jabs into their own hands. So African countries hope to become less dependent on vaccines from industrialized nations as quickly as possible.

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