President Cyril Ramaphosa has made a request to wealthy, first-world countries to donate a percentage of their COVID-19 vaccines to developing nations to help curb the spread of the virus.

Speaking at the Global Citizen Recovering Better Together virtual press launch on Tuesday [February 23], Ramaphosa explained that the new Recovering Better Together campaign recognises that overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic is essential if we are to make any progress in tackling poverty.

“To achieve this, we must deepen cooperation to ensure equitable access to vaccines. No person, no country and no region must be left behind,” he said.

“To fight the pandemic, we need to pool resources, capabilities, knowledge and intellectual property. That is why we continue to call on world leaders to support the COVAX facility to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries.”

He expressed his support of French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission (EU) president Ursula von der Leyen in their calls for wealthier countries to donate 5% of their purchased vaccine stock to developing countries. 

He also urges for the important step of enabling the transfer of medical technology for the duration of the pandemic, as this will allow for the increased production of COVID-19 vaccines and other medical products, lower prices and improve distribution to reach all corners of the world.

Picture: Twitter / The Presidency

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