(Bloomberg) -- Headway is being made in efforts to secure more coronavirus vaccines for Africa, where less than 3.5% of the population has been fully inoculated, according to the head of the World Health Organization. 

“Between now and the end of the year we expect the volumes of vaccines coming into Africa to increase substantially,” Tedros Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general, said in a speech on Wednesday. “That makes it crucial that all countries step up their preparations to roll out vaccines.”

Officials from the WHO, the Covax initiative and the African Union’s Africa Vaccine Acquisition Trust met on Tuesday to discuss the continent’s vaccine shortfall and how to address it. Their aim is to ensure all the AU’s 55 member states inoculate at least 40% of their populations by the end of the year -- a target achieved by just two of them so far.

Read more: Africa’s Low-Immunity Population Raises Covid Variant Risk

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