WHO chief praises South Africa’s work to make COVID vaccines

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME
Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The visiting chief of the World Health Organization says that South Africa’s efforts to produce vaccines are key to helping the African continent become more self-sufficient in inoculations to combat COVID-19 and many other diseases. On his visit to Cape Town, WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus is viewing three facilities that are starting work to manufacture vaccines. Tedros visited the Biomedical Research Institute at the Tygerberg campus of Stellenbosch University on Friday. He is also scheduled to visit Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines and the Biovac laboratories in Cape Town. Addressing a press briefing, he said the pandemic had shown the need for local production of vaccines in low and middle-income countries.