Covax asks for 5.2 billion dollars to continue distributing vaccines in 2022

They estimate that by distributing vaccines this year, they could save between 1 and 1.27 million lives.
The international anti-Covid vaccine distribution programme Covax, which in its first year of operation delivered one billion doses mainly to developing countries, today asked the international community for an additional 5.2 billion dollars to continue its work in 2022.

The World Health Organization (WHO), the GAVI Vaccine Foundation and other institutions that support Covax made this call at a virtual conference where they also announced initial commitments of more than 500 million dollars for this second year of operations and third of the pandemic.

“In 2022, we can help end Covid-19 by using these supports to ensure that doses are used quickly and reach countries in the numbers they need,” said GAVI CEO Seth Berkley.

The first countries to pledge include the Netherlands ($26 million), Ireland ($10 million), Finland ($5.9 million), Belgium ($9 million) and Spain, which has pledged €3.5 million for Covax in 2022 ($3.9 million), among others.

The Covax programme estimates that its distribution of vaccines this year could save between 1 and 1.27 million lives, and reduce the economic cost of the pandemic by half in many of the beneficiary countries.

Since the first vaccines distributed by Covax (600,000 doses to the African nation of Ghana) arrived on January 24, 2021, the program has distributed its vaccines in 2021 to 144 countries and territories around the world, mainly to regions such as Africa, Latin America, South Asia and other developing areas.

The doses are distributed at low prices in middle-income nations, or are even financed by the international program itself in the case of lower-income economies (in the case of Latin America, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Haiti fall into this category).

EFE

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