COVID-19: US, Europe may ban African travellers – CDC Boss warns

The inability of African countries to rollout covid vaccination effectively will have dire consequences for Africans in the near future, hence developed countries may slam travel ban on African citizens, John Nkengasong, Director of the African Union’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Africa CDC, warns African leaders..

Nkengasong disclosed that United States, European Union may slam travel ban on African citizen through the introduction of vaccine passport/certificate to prevent the importation of covid-19 virus from countries less successful in their vaccination, including Africa

In an interview with CNN, Nkengasong said “my greatest fear also is that once the US and Europe get the vaccine, they begin to impose the need to have vaccine certificate to travel and that is extremely complicated for Africans to travel across the world.

Asked about Africa’s lack of vaccines, he said: “That is absolutely one of our greatest concerns, that the vaccine situation will continue to exacerbate the inequality gap that exists in the world especially the north – south divide.

Nkengasong stressed that the continent needed to be taken along by the developed world as they vigorously roll out inoculation efforts. Africa’s rollout has been relatively slower with over a third of African countries yet to receive doses.

In his concluding remarks he asked that Africa teams up with development partners to achieve its 60% continent-wide vaccination in the next two years.

“I think that is why we should as a collective of the continent and of course in partnership with the developed world make sure that Africa has a timely access to vaccines to meet our vaccination targets