INTERNATIONAL: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said "South Africa should no longer be last in line to access vaccines" as he has opened a new vaccine manufacturing facility in Cape Town on Wednesday ,January 19.

South African-American businessman Patrick Soon-Shiong has opened the vaccine plant, intended to help his local NantSA company make COVID-19 shots in future and address the continent's lack of manufacturing capacity.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed a global lack of access to life-saving vaccines, particularly in Africa, where just about seven percent of the population of 1.2 billion has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 compared to over half the world's population.

Soon-Shiong, who is also a medical doctor, will transfer technology and materials for RNA, adjuvant vaccine platforms and cell therapy from his California-based NantWorks to scientists in South Africa, where they will also work on vaccines targeting cancer, TB and HIV.

Another one of Soon-Shiong's firms, ImmunityBio, is currently testing a novel coronavirus vaccine candidate in South Africa that looks at priming the body's soldier T cells to kill the coronavirus and prevent it replicating.