“It really puts us in a very comfortable position,” Marie-Ange Saraka-Yao, Gavi’s managing director, told a virtual media briefing. The group had previously said it needed an additional $ 5.2 billion to continue providing vaccines for COVID-19 on a global scale as part of a global vaccine program in poorer countries.
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Saraka-Yao said $ 2.1 billion of that came from innovative financial instruments, $ 1.7 billion from government commitments from individual countries and $ 1 billion from multilateral development banks. COVAX has so far delivered 1.42 billion installments in 145 countries. The escalation of deliveries through COVAX is considered crucial to achieving the World Health Organization’s goal of vaccinating 70% of the population in the poorest countries by mid-2022. Gavi CEO Seth Berkeley said the program had several vaccines and the main challenge was to help countries increase their storage and distribution capacity. “It’s something we’re working hard on right now. “And that is where this critical capital injection will make a big difference.”
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Reuters reported in February that COVAX was having difficulty placing more than 300 million doses. German Development Minister Svenja Schulze said in a briefing on Friday that the country would contribute € 1.1 billion ($ 1.2 billion) this year to the so-called Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), which includes vaccines as well as and trials and treatments. “This means that Germany will once again contribute its fair share to ACT A, demonstrating our commitment to promoting global solutions to global challenges,” Schulze said. ($ 1 = € 0.9221) (Report by Mrinalika Roy and Emma Farge; Edited by David Holmes)
