India's halt to vaccine exports 'very problematic' for Africa

There have been at least 4,742,000 reported infections and 126,000 reported deaths caused by the novel coronavirus in Africa so far

An , where authorities are battling a wave of domestic infections, risks derailing vaccinationefforts already underway in Africa, one of the continent's top health officials said on Tuesday. India stopped vaccine exports a month ago and, according to a Reuters report earlier on Tuesday, is now unlikely to resum emajor exports before October, dealing a major setback to the global COVAX initiative on which many poor countries rely. Africa has lagged far behind other regions due to supply issues and meagre financial resources but had planned to vaccinate 30-35% of its population by the end of the year and60% within the next two to three years.