The G7 leaders have pledged to intensify co-operation on Covid-19 and increase their contribution to the Covax vaccine-sharing initiative.
In a joint statement, released after a virtual summit on Friday, the G7 leaders raised their overall commitment to 7.5 billion US dollars. The move is expected to boost the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to poor nations.
The US President Joe Biden pledged 4 billion dollars for the COVAX fund. An initial 2 billion dollars will be donated in 2021, with an additional 2 billion dollars will be donated over the next two years.
Germany pledged an additional $1.2bn. German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced an additional EUR 980 million contribution to COVAX. This unprecedented commitment by Germany is the country’s largest single pledge to support global health security.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen announced an additional EUR 500 million pledge to the Gavi COVAX AMC, which includes EUR 300 million in grant funding from the European Commission and EUR 200 million in guarantees through the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Ireland also announced EUR 4 million in funding for COVAX on Friday.
The Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson pledged to donate most of the UK’s surplus vaccine supply to poorer countries. He urged rich countries to back a 100-day target for developing new vaccines for future emerging diseases.
This comes alongside a call by French President Emmanuel Macron for higher-income countries to reserve a percentage of their vaccine doses for lower-income economies.
The Covax scheme is aiming to get at least 1.3bn vaccine doses to vulnerable populations worldwide in the coming months. Covax is co-led by Gavi, known as the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
Widely Uneven and Unfair
These new commitments came after, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, earlier this week, had criticized the distribution of vaccines, calling it “wildly uneven and unfair”. He urged the global north to contribute more to the COVAX facility to help fight the pandemic in the global south. He said just 10 countries had administered 75% of all vaccinations worldwide, while 130 countries had not yet received a single dose. The COVAX program, under the World Health Organization (WHO), has already missed its own goal of distributing vaccinations in poor countries at the same time that vaccinations began in wealthy nations.
On 19th Feb 2021, Friday, the G7 leaders gathered for the first time via VC since April 2020. This G7 gathering also marks the first international meeting for new US President Joe Biden.
India winning friends through Vaccine Maitri
As part of PM Modi’s pledge to help small and poor countries in overcoming Covid-19 pandemic challenges, India has been supplying vaccines to countries free of cost under the ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative. India has successfully distributed Made in India vaccines globally in more than 25 countries and 49 countries are in the queue.
From 20 January 2021, India began airlifting over 6 million vaccines to more than 40 countries in South Asia, the Gulf, Africa, Europe, and Latin America, including the vulnerable small island states in the Pacific and Caribbean.
India has been very much at the forefront of the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and is providing vaccines to the world under ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiatives. India will gift 2,00,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine to United Nations peacekeepers.
As part of the GAVI-COVAX alliance, India will also supply 1 crore doses to Africa and 10 lakh to UN health workers.
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