Some rules on intellectual property rights can be waived to enable production of Covid-19 vaccines in the developing countries.
The measure would, in turn, boost global access to the much needed vaccines and the fight against the pandemic.
"Intellectual property rights and export restrictions need to be lifted", insisted the East African Community (EAC secretary general Peter Mathuki.
He said at the High Level debate on the sidelines of the recent United Nations General Assembly (Unga) in New York that this would allow vaccine production in Africa.
He warned that a region that is not vaccinated could be a source of propagating new variants of the Covid-19 virus.
In industrial production context, intellectual property rights are the rights given to persons over the creations of their products.
The EAC boss said this can be waived for the time being in order to allow production of Covid-19 vaccines in the low and middle income countries.
Dr. Mathuki said he supported repeated calls by the EAC leaders for increased assistance in the wake of coronavirus impact.
“I fully support President Samia Suluhu Hassan´s remarks that developing countries must be assisted in addressing the socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 to revive economic growth,", he said.
President Hassan addressed the UN General Assembly last week during which she revealed that 70 percent of Tanzanians should be vaccinated by next year.
Dr. Mathuki, who is currently in New York for a series of UN meetings, said while the world discusses booster shots, access to vaccines was still posing a challenge in Africa.
He also reiterated the remarks by the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni who called for access to affordable COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.
President Évariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi, also like his Tanzanian counterpart, addressed the high level UN meeting after many years of absence of his country's leader at the podium.
He called for action towards security, imploring on countries across the globe to annihilate terrorism which, according to him,threaten peace and security in the EA region.
Burundi was rocked by grenade and rocket attacks, blamed on some rebels, last weekend on the eve of President Ndayishimye's departure to New York.
President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya warned against the impact of the illicit small arms and light weapons while his Rwanda counterpart Paul Kagame raised a red flag on "extremist ideologies" building up in the region.
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