G7 leaders to provide more than 1B COVID-19 vaccines

Grace Kuria.
G7 leaders have agreed to provide an additional more than 1 billion COVID-19 doses starting mid-2021.

A communique by White House stated, “this week in Cornwall, G7 Leaders agreed to provide at least 1 billion doses of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines to accelerate global vaccine coverage, particularly for the poorest countries.”

On its part, the United States announced its commitment to purchase and contribute to Gavi or in support of COVAX 500 million doses of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, with delivery beginning in August 2021.

The U.S. will allocate these doses to 92 low and lower-middle income nations around the world.

“This announcement means that since 2020, the G7 has committed to financing and providing approximately 2.3 billion vaccines for the world.” The statement read.

This 2.3 billion total includes support for expanding local production capacity around the world to add more than a billion doses to the global vaccine supply by the end of 2022.- AFRICA CGTN.