The first Covid vaccination plant in Africa is in jeopardy of being shut down.

Due to a lack of demand, the first African plant producing Covid vaccinations says it may have to shut down production.

Aspen Pharmacare, which has been producing Johnson & Johnson vaccines in South Africa's Eastern Cape province, is now in danger of going out of business.

It comes at a time when the majority of Africa's population is still unvaccinated.

Professor Tulio de Oliveira, director of South Africa's Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, told the BBC's Newsday program that the closure could have an impact on the manufacture of other vaccines that "do not concern the developed world," as well as pandemic preparedness.

He said that "vaccine apartheid" has harmed Covid vaccination uptake in South Africa and across the continent.

"What was surprising last year is that we had a hard time getting vaccines... vaccines were not flowing to South Africa and Africa... but when most other countries had vaccinated their populace, we had vaccine dumping."

"We received millions and millions of doses... some of which had very short expiry dates, which harmed [uptake]."

He claims that Africa's uptake has fallen as a result of three big waves of Covid, including a particularly severe one without vaccinations.