FILE - In this July 23, 2020 file photo, mourners attend the funeral of health care worker Duduzile Margaret Mbonane who died from COVID-19, at her funeral in Thokoza, near Johannesburg, South Africa. AP
All countries should join hands in a global effort to procure and distribute potential vaccines against the coronavirus across the globe, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said 76 rich nations were now committed to joining a global COVID-19 vaccine allocation plan co-led by the WHO that aims to help buy and fairly distribute the shots.
The United States said on Tuesday it would not join the effort, called COVAX, due to President Donald Trump's administration's objection to WHO involvement, a move described by some critics as "disappointing".
"We are in this together. No country will be safe if any other country in the world still has cases of COVID," John Nkengasong, the head of the Addis Ababa-based continental body, told an online news conference.
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