Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has said no country will be safe from COVID-19 until all countries are safe, but international solidarity can help in combatting the virus.

Nandi-Ndaitwah made these remarks on Saturday during the signing of a donation agreement by the Namibian and Serbian governments in Windhoek.

The Serbian government pledged to donate Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines to Namibia, which are expected to arrive in the country in the coming weeks. The number of doses to be donated are not yet known.

The deputy prime minister said in Namibia herd immunity is still out of reach, but with vaccine donations such as Serbia’s the country is one step closer to reaching its target.

“We cannot wait too long to vaccinate our people. In the words of the Director General of the World Health Organisation, ‘To wait to donate and produce more jabs until next year, that will be too late for those who are dying today’,” said Nandi-Ndaitwah.

She added that the Ministry of Health and Social Services has pointed out that the regions in Namibia that recorded the highest number of new infections were also still reporting deaths. Vaccine uptake in the same regions is also low. Politicians as well as the health, religious and traditional leadership should intensify vaccination awareness to boost vaccine uptake in order to reduce new infections and deaths, she added.

Serbia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Selakovic, who spoke at the same occasion, said Serbia intends to continue its political cooperation with Namibia and other African countries on known grounds such as respect for independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, non-interference in the internal affairs of individual countries and respect for the African Union’s position on international issues.

Source: Namibia Press Agency