London | African governments are struggling to deploy COVID-19 jabs donated by rich countries because the donors too often supply vaccines ad hoc, at short notice and close to their use-by date, the World Health Organisation warns.

The emergence of the alarming omicron variant in South Africa has given the World Health Organisation an opening to put further pressure on Western countries to step up their vaccine donations and use a more orderly process, as it becomes clear that leaving Africa unvaccinated creates a petrie dish for new mutations.