G7 leaders agree to ‘intensify co-operation’ to defeat the pandemic
The group of leading democracies agreed to double their funding for the Covax vaccine supply scheme.
Leaders of the G7 have vowed to provide ‘affordable and equitable access to vaccines’ for poorer countries during a virtual summit.
The heads of the world’s leading democracies have agreed to double their funding for Covax – vaccine supply scheme founded by the World Health Organization (WHO) – from $3.5billion to $7.5billion (£5.3billion).
In a statement following their meeting yesterday, the group said: ‘We will intensify co-operation on the health response to Covid-19.
‘The dedication of essential workers everywhere represents the best of humanity, while the rapid discovery of vaccines shows the power of human ingenuity.
‘Working with, and together to strengthen, the World Health Organisation and supporting its leading and co-ordinating role, we will: accelerate global vaccine development and deployment; work with industry to increase manufacturing capacity, including through voluntary licensing; improve information-sharing, such as on sequencing new variants; and, promote transparent and responsible practices, and vaccine confidence.’
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed the announcement, but said much more still needs to be done to address the imbalance of vaccines across the globe.
At a virtual meeting earlier this week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said supplying jabs to everyone who needs them is ‘the biggest moral test before the global community’.
Describing the current distribution as ‘wildly uneven and unfair’, he said that 75% of Covid vaccinations worldwide had been administered by just 10 countries, while 130 nations haven’t had a single dose.
With the UK’s vaccine rollout going exceptionally well, Boris Johnson has faced calls to share surplus vaccines, with experts arguing populations across the world must be given immunity if the pandemic is ever going to be defeated.
Yesterday the Prime Minister, who is this year’s G7 chairman, vowed to donate the majority of Britain’s surplus supply to developing countries.
It has not been decided exactly how many spare jabs will be given and when, although Government sources have suggested well over 50% of excess doses will go to Covax.
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