Covid-19
Donors pledge 4.4 billion euros for corona vaccination campaign
Svenja Schulze (SPD), Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development: “Working hard on our goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the population in all countries”. Photo: Annette Riedl/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The campaign for worldwide vaccination against the corona virus has not yet achieved its goals. With additional billions, the logistics are now to be improved in particular.
A donor conference organized with Germany’s participation on Friday brought pledges of 4.4 billion euros (around 4.8 billion US dollars) for the global vaccination campaign against Corona.
The development ministry announced in Berlin that the vaccination alliance Covax could enable more than a further billion vaccinations in the 92 poorest countries in the world through investments in logistics and the purchase of syringes and other consumables. Indonesia, Ghana and Senegal were also hosts.
“We must and we can face more than one crisis at a time. The pandemic is only defeated when it is defeated everywhere,” said Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD). “That’s why we continue to work hard towards our common goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the population in all countries.”
Enable access for developing countries
Germany is providing 400 million euros for Covax in 92 countries and an additional 224 million euros for vaccine logistics in the partner countries of German development cooperation. A new “precautionary instrument” was also agreed, which should take effect in the event of new dangerous virus variants and ensure that developing countries then have quick and equal access to new vaccines.
The development organization One praised the result of the virtual meeting. “The world community did its homework today. The promised funds give reason for hope: With today’s summit, the ambitious goal that all countries in the world have a vaccination rate of at least 70 percent by the middle of this year remains within reach, wrote Stephan Exo-Kreischer, Director of One Germany. A portion of the pledges – $1 billion – were pledged by multilateral development banks in the form of loans.