07 Feb 2021

Botswana has urged the African continent to improve its own research and development capacities and to promote local production of pharmaceutical products in order to successfully combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The call was made by Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Dr Lemogang Kwape during the virtual 34th ordinary session of the African Union assembly on Saturday.

Dr Kwape said the continent must explore research priorities on the genetic sequencing of the new COVID-19 variants.

Such initiatives would ensure that the vaccines and therapeutics being developed were effective in local settings, he said. 

He said Botswana welcomed  support from Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to assess all member states’ readiness to deploy new COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics effectively and efficiently as they become available.

“My Government is committed to working with other stakeholders to ensure readiness for the vaccine. We, therefore, join other African countries in supporting the initiative of acquiring the vaccines through the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) platform,” he added.

Dr Kwape said the COVID-19 pandemic had caused an unprecedented demographic and socio-economic crisis worldwide and in the process put a considerable strain on health systems.

“We recorded our first case of COVID-19 on 30 March 2020. To date, 148 deaths and over 21 000 positive cases have been registered. The country is currently experiencing a marked surge in local transmissions and relatively lower numbers of imported cases. As part of the response we have strengthened screening services at ports of entry, ramped up our laboratory capacities, surveillance and contact tracing for suspected cases,” he said.

Meanwhile South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has officially handed over the AU chairmanship to his successor President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Minister Kwape applauded President Ramaphosa for doing a sterling job during his tenure.

“We will all agree that it was an extremely insurmountable task, steering the union during perhaps the most difficult times in its history. His task was further compounded by the fact that his country, South Africa, was among the most affected countries in the continent by the outbreak of the coronavirus. Yet he ably and distinctively represented us and sought assistance for all our countries, from various cooperating partners. He has also brought us even closer together in the fight against this global pandemic,” he said.

Dr Kwape said Botswana supported the proposal to appoint President Ramaphosa AU response to COVID-19 champion. Ends