Burundi Capitulates on Vaccines, Leaving One Holdout in Africa
Burundi Capitulates on Vaccines, Leaving One Holdout in Africa
Burundi will allow the World Bank to arrange for Covid-19 vaccines to be delivered in the country, leaving Eritrea as the sole nation on the continent resisting the shots.
“Anyone who wants will be vaccinated,” Health Minister Thaddée Ndikumana said late Wednesday, without disclosing details of the arrangement with the World Bank.
The small east Africa nation has registered only 6,715 cases and nine deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Infections have increased in the north near the border with Rwanda, according to its health authorities.
Other than Horn of Africa nation Eritrea, Tanzania was the other vaccine denier but changed its policy after President Samia Hassan came to power. The nation received a U.S. donation of 1.01 million Johnson & Johnson doses this week, months after other African nations started inoculating their populations.
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