The World Bank has loaned US$507 million to South Africa for use in the country’s Covid-19 Emergency Response Project aimed at combating the worldwide pandemic, APA learnt here on Tuesday.
Approved by the bank’s board of directors on Monday, the funds follow a request by the South African government for assistance to finance its vaccine procurement contracts, the Ministry of Finance and World Bank said in a joint statement.
“South Africa is the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic in Africa, with the highest cumulative numbers of infections and deaths,” the two entities said.
The project will retroactively finance the procurement of 47 million Covid-19 vaccine doses by the Go South Africa (GoSA) organisation, the two organisations said.
“By supporting the country’s Covid-19 vaccination programme, the project will help the government better cope with the pandemic, as the country experiences its fifth wave, and support the GoSA to create the fiscal space needed to strengthen its health system and ensure financial and institutional sustainability,” they said.
South Africa’s robust vaccination programme has dispensed over 36.4 million doses, so far covering 50.3% of adults and 29.9% of youths as of Monday.
Along with the Genomic Surveillance Project, the Covid-19 Emergency Response Project forms part of World Bank’s expanded support for South Africa’s response to the pandemic.
The surveillance project seeks to improve the capacity to identify variants of SARS-CoV-2 in South Africa and the rest of Africa.
NM/jn/APA