South African envoy calls on Canada to support waiver on COVID-19 vaccines

OTTAWA — South Africa’s envoy in Ottawa is calling on Canada to support a waiver on patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines as her country copes with the fallout of its discovery of the new Omicron variant.

South African High Commissioner Sibongiseni Dlamini-Mntambo criticized Canada’s ban on travel from southern African countries as both shocking and knee-jerk after scientists from her country discovered the new variant of concern and dutifully reported it to the World Health Organization.

Dlamini-Mntambo tells The Canadian Press that the emergence of Omicron is rooted in the vaccine inequity that has resulted in less than one-quarter of her country being fully vaccinated, while children in the West get their first shots and some adults their third. 

South Africa and India have drafted a waiver at the World Trade Organization that calls for patents on COVID-19 vaccines that big pharmaceutical companies hold to be suspended to speed up their manufacture and distribution to less-developed countries.