Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China will donate another billion doses of vaccines to Africa as the continent grapples with the spread of the COVID-19 variant Omicron.

China said it will supply 600 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccines while the other 400 million will come from production by Chinese companies in Africa.

“We need to put people and their lives first, be guided by science, support waiving intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines and truly ensure the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in Africa to bridge the immunization gap,” he said in a video speech at the China-Africa forum on economic cooperation held every three years.

A large part of the global south has been grappling with vaccine inequity while many advanced economies have already been administering booster shots. This has caused a wide discrepancy in protection around the world.

The recent rise of the Omicron variant has reinforced the dangers of having a large part of the world with low inoculation rates.

On Monday, the World Health Organization warned that the new Omicron variant has a “very high” global risk and urged national authorities to step up pandemic relief efforts.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated the continued need for testing and vaccinations given that recent findings labeled Omicron a "variant of concern."

China hopes to help the African Union achieve its goal of vaccinating 60% of the continent’s population by 2022, Xi said.

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