President Joe Biden will pledge $4 billion in US aid to the Covax global COVID-19 vaccination programme during his virtual meeting with other G7 leaders on Friday, White House officials said.
An initial $2 billion will be released ‘by the end of this month,’ with the rest coming over the next two years, said a senior White House official, who asked not to be identified, on Thursday.
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Covax is a global project to procure and distribute coronavirus vaccines for at least the most vulnerable 20 per cent in every country, allowing poorer nations to catch up with the rush by dozens of wealthy countries to vaccinate.
‘The United States is really excited to be making our first contribution to Covax,’ the White House official said. ‘We do think it is vital to take a role in beating the pandemic globally.’
Although the United States is ‘prioritising’ domestic needs, assistance to other countries ‘decreases the risk to everyone in the world, including Americans, and also decreases the risk of variants,’ the official said.
For now, the focus is on contributing funds for purchase of new vaccines but ‘when we have a sufficient supply it is our intention to consider donating surplus vaccines,’ the official said.
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Biden’s move is a swift recede from his predecessor Donald Trump who had refused to participate in COVAX and threatened that the USA would sever its relationship with World Health Organization (WHO) for being ‘close’ to China, where COVID-19 was first discovered in 2019.
COVAX is co-led by WHO, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and others.
COVAX is a global initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. It plans to deliver at least 2 billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021 to cover 20% of the most vulnerable people in poor and middle-income countries.
© ControlTV 2021.
