Fiona Govan
THE Spanish Prime Minister pledged to donate a further 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to developing countries.
“The best thing we can do is guarantee universal and fair access to Covid-19 vaccines,” insisted Spain’s Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez in Rome as the G20 summit came to an end.
“We have committed ourselves to significantly increase the supply, access and administration of vaccines to developing nations,” he said.
“To contribute to this goal in a concrete way, the government of Spain will fulfil its commitment to donate 30 million vaccines by the end of the year, and we will donate another 20 million vaccines during the first three months of 2022,” he said.
The issue of Covid-19 vaccines for all was on the table at the G20 health ministers meeting in Rome where it was agreed to try to vaccinate 70% of all populations by mid-2022.
The WHO said 7bn doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered globally with some people now receiving three vaccines, but Covax – the initiative designed to help fairly achieve global access to vaccines – had only received 11.5% of the promised 1.3bn doses.
Global targets have been set to vaccinate 40% of the population of every country by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-2022.
Spain in September pledged to give a further 7.5 million vaccine doses to the global vaccine-sharing alliance bringing to 30 million the total amount it had until now pledged to donate.
With 88.5 percent of its population fully vaccinated, Spain has one of the highest rates of inoculation against Covid-19 in Europe.
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