The Covid-19 pandemic will continue into 2022, with the World Health Organization (WHO) admitting that the disease will "extend for one year longer than necessary" because poor countries are not getting the vaccines they need to immunize their populations.

For Bruce Aylward, senior WHO official, the pandemic crisis "will easily drag on until 2022." Currently, less than 5% of the African population has been vaccinated, compared to 40% of the population on other continents.

Through the COVAX program, Portugal has donated 298,700 vaccines to Senegal and has also donated 110,000 doses of AstraZeneca to Mozambique.

Covax's idea was that all countries in the world would purchase their vaccines through the program, but the G7 countries, and also the European Union, have begun purchasing vaccines directly from pharmaceutical companies.

Aylward called for rich countries to give up their excess vaccines so that pharmaceutical companies could prioritize the poorest countries. For the official, high-income countries must "take stock" of their donation commitments. "I can tell you that we are not on track. Do we really need to accelerate or do you know? This pandemic is going to last a year longer than it needs to," he pointed out.

A vaccine charity said that only one in seven doses promised by pharmaceutical companies and rich countries are reaching low-income countries.