The African Union's Trade and Industry Commissioner argued this week that economic recovery is virtually impossible without accelerating the vaccination process in Africa, where less than 3% of the population has been immunized.

"For Africa to be well positioned for economic recovery, the African Union's view is that the first step is to ensure a fair and accelerated supply of vaccines to immunize Africans, because until that is done, and we have less than 3% of the population vaccinated, talk of recovery and resilience become doubly challenging," Albert Muchanga said on Africa Day at the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, organized by the United Nations.

During his speech, Muchanga pointed out that "the third wave Africa is going through will have profound impacts this year, next year, and perhaps beyond, and will bring social upheaval that will only be combated if equality is at the center of recovery policies."

The commissioner lamented the "high dependence on imports of pharmaceutical products" and argued that "the immediate response to the pandemic situation must include equal access to vaccines and other treatments and strengthening countries' financial positions, which is critical to strengthen finances and secure the funding needed to ensure compliance with Agenda 2063.

Defending international cooperation and regional integration, Muchanga advocated that "the pandemic will not be defeated if countries isolate themselves," and therefore needed, he concluded, "more macroeconomic cooperation and strong institutions in the areas of peace and security, investment, economic integration, humanitarian affairs, and also in the areas of health and energy issues.

Africa Day marked by this event comes on the same day that the head of Africa at the World Health Organization announced that it took just one month for the continent to accumulate one million new cases of covid-19 infection, which has now exceeded six million cases in Africa.

"The third wave continues its destructive path, surpassing another sad milestone, with the continent surpassing six million cases," said Matshidiso Moeti, on WHO Africa's Twitter feed.

In the last month, she added, "Africa registered one million cases, the fastest time to add this number, which took about three months to go from 4 million to 5 million cases."

In statements that were posted this morning on Twitter, Moeti also said that "the number of deaths has risen sharply over the past five weeks, increasing 40% in the last week."

Health systems, he concluded, "were already struggling to provide essential services to communities before the pandemic, and are now cracking under the pressure of covid-19."