The president of China, Xi Jinping, se ha committed this monday to provide 1 billion vaccines against covid-19 to Africa with the aim of stimulating immunization against the disease in the continent, where the variant has been identified omicron of SARS-CoV-2.

As detailed in an intervention in a cooperation forum between China and Africa, the first 600 million doses will be donated to Africa, while Beijing offers produce the 400 million remaining in cooperation with Chinese and African companies, has picked up the Chinese newspaper ‘Global Times’.

China thus intends to collaborate to achieve meta of the African Union (AU) of the 60% of population vaccinated against covid-19 in the continent, which until now has only the 6% of the population with complete regimen.

For his part, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has recognized the role of China and has urged the rest of the international community to show “greater support” for Africa and its recovery from covid-19.

Guterres has congratulated South African science and health authorities for “acting early” to identify the new variant. omicron of the coronavirus and has been shown contrary to penalties and concerned about the “isolation” of the southern countries of the African continent. He stressed that “Africa should not be penalized for identifying and sharing crucial scientific and health information with the world.”

According to Guterres, “Africa is last in the global queue for covid-19 vaccines. Less than ten percent of people are fully vaccinated, and the low vaccination rate it’s not just a risk for Africa, but for the whole world, since the virus is free to multiply and mutate. “He pointed out, however, that “The people of Africa cannot be blamed for the immorally low level of vaccines available”.

Therefore, he has encouraged the associations to allow a qualitative leap in the delivery of vaccines “to the millions of Africans who are still denied this basic measure to save lives”, and added that “what has happened to the vaccines in the world is immoral. “

Later, Guterres’ spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, pointed out that the UN relies on “scientific solutions” rather than on the “general prohibition of certain citizens”, as they consider it to be a form of “collective punishment”.

“We believe that these types of blanket bans could be counterproductive and that there are scientific and fact-based solutions that can protect us more effectively,” he argued.

More than 30 countries around the world have announced measures to drastically restrict the arrival of international tourists to their territory due to the spread of the new variant of covid-19.