The funds will raise Canada’s total cash contribution to COVAX to approximately $ 700 million for the purchase, delivery and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines for lower-income countries.
“Our collective goal must be to increase access to vaccines for COVID-19 and other medical countermeasures, so that each country has what it takes to protect its people from this virus,” Trinto told Friday, during a virtual COVAX summit.
COVAX raised another $ 1.7 billion from countries such as Canada at the event.
The cash is intended to help Canada fulfill its commitment to donate at least 200 million installments by the end of the year.
This last contribution will aim to help recipient countries prepare to receive and distribute the vaccines offered.
Last month, International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan traveled to Senegal and Ghana to meet with local officials overseeing their vaccine programs.  He said the issue of vaccine donations was no longer about procurement.
In contrast, there are restrictions on the distribution of vaccines in recipient countries, including regional supplies, such as syringes, and high levels of vaccine reluctance, especially among younger individuals.  He said his discussions on that trip were helpful in helping to target Canada ‘s aid where it is most needed.
“The main challenge for us right now is not supply,” he said.  “This is the installation of all the other tools.”
Justin McAuley, a Canadian spokesman for the global anti-poverty agency ONE Campaign, said the new funds were useful.  For the first year of COVID-19 vaccines, supply was the main constraint in both rich and low-income countries.
McAuley said that now COVAX does not want installments.  Its own supply agreements with vaccine manufacturers are beginning to bear fruit, and rich countries like Canada that snatched all the early vaccine doses have vaccinated most of their population and have many surplus doses available.
“But some countries do not have the refrigerators, syringes and healthcare workers needed to take up arms,” ​​McAuley said.  “Therefore, when we finance COVAX as we did today, this will ensure that there is logistical support, so that our installments do not end up falling badly in the warehouses.”
He said funding could also help COVAX launch public awareness campaigns to overcome apathy and hesitation about getting vaccines.
However, McAuley said Canada did not offer many donation installments until it no longer had any use for them at home and in many cases as their expiration dates approached.
He said Canada must provide a steady, predictable supply of vaccine donations so that countries in need can prepare to receive them and take up arms.
Earlier this year, John Nkengasong, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Africa, called for a halt to donations because so many donations were made that countries could not meet storage needs or deliver them to humans quickly enough.
He said transporting vaccines and supplies such as syringes to remote locations remains a challenge, there is a shortage of healthcare workers who can make vaccines and vaccine reluctance is high.
Canada has fully vaccinated 82 percent of its population and a third dose has been given to 48 percent.  As a group, the richest countries in the world have fully vaccinated 74 percent and boosted 38 percent.
The poorest countries have fully vaccinated less than 12 percent of the population and only 15 percent have even one dose.
Canada has promised to donate 38 million installments of its own domestic supplies and another 13 million installments that Canada bought for itself from COVAX but did not need.
So far, Canada has shipped 14.2 million doses to 19 countries through COVAX and another 762,000 directly to six countries through bilateral vaccine donation agreements.
He says another 87 million installments were purchased by COVAX with previous financial donations from Canada – but this is based on a cost-per-installment formula developed by the UK and COVAX itself says it cannot confirm the exact number.


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This Canadian Press report was first published on April 8, 2022.