Africa's top public health body said on Thursday it had signed a memorandum of understanding with American biopharmaceutical company Pfizer to procure supplies of its Paxlovid pill to treat COVID-19.

"We have signed the MoU with Pfizer and we are going to be able to make that particular treatment available to African countries," said Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, deputy director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

(With input from Reuters)