Rome:
Britain will send 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to developing countries by the end of this year, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson telling other world leaders it is a much-needed step to spur economic recovery after the pandemic.
The leaders of the world’s 20 richest countries are gathering in Rome for a meeting that Johnson hopes will lead to progress on producing firm commitments to cut emissions ahead of climate talks in Glasgow at the UN COP26 summit.
But they also need to get support from developing countries, some of which are already facing the devastating effects of global warming and struggling to vaccinate their populations against COVID-19 as Western countries move forward. are running.
Earlier this year at a meeting of the leaders of the seven largest advanced economies, Britain promised at least 100 million shots under the G7 target, a plan critics said was too slow and clear.
Britain said in a statement that it has distributed 10 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, with 10 million more to be distributed in the coming weeks, taking the total to 30.6 million in 2021.
In 2022, Britain will donate at least 20 million more Oxford-AstraZeneca doses and all 20 million Janssen doses ordered by the government to the COVAX facility supported by the World Health Organization and the GAVI Vaccine Coalition.
According to the Downing Street office, Johnson will tell G20 leaders, “Like a waking giant, the world economy is coming back to life. But the speed of recovery will depend on how quickly we can overcome COVID.”
“Our first priority as the G20 should be to move forward with rapid, equitable and global distribution of vaccines.”
Mass vaccination against the coronavirus is seen as vital to restoring economic growth, trade and travel, but Western countries are overtaking developing countries, many of which have the lowest vaccination rates and rising cases.
A hundred former leaders and government ministers from around the world met with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who is hosting the G20 meeting, in what they said was an unfair distribution of vaccines.
He said the United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada would stockpile 240 million unused vaccines by the end of the month, which these countries’ military could immediately take to countries in greater need.
A total of 1.1 billion surplus vaccines could be transferred by the end of February, it said.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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