Africa's top public health agency has agreed a memorandum of understanding with Pfizer to bring supplies of the pharmaceutical firm's Paxlovid antiviral Covid-19 pills to the continent, Reuters quotes the CDC director as saying.

John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), also said it was still talking to Merck about obtaining supplies of its molnupiravir COVID pill and a call was scheduled for this week about that.

“For the Pfizer situation, we have the MoU. The memorandum of understanding is with the legal office at the AU (African Union),” said Nkengasong.