The African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) has long had the finance needed to buy Covid-19 vaccines and has been engaging with all the manufacturers, but it is not able to secure deals with them and the vaccine-sharing platform Covax is also being edged out as developed countries horde vaccines, warned top public health officials on Thursday.

To date, about 8-million Africans have been infected with Covid-19 and 204,821 deaths have been reported on the continent.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said: “Export bans and vaccine hoarding have a chokehold on vaccine supplies to Africa. As long as rich countries lock Covax out of the market, Africa will miss its vaccination goals.”..