Status: 03/01/2022 18:23
In order to advance the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 worldwide, Germany is making another billion-dollar commitment. The majority of people in many poorer countries are still not vaccinated.
Germany is providing a further equivalent of around 1.3 billion euros for the global corona vaccination campaign. That said Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) after consultations with the G7 countries. The money should therefore go to the international initiative Act Accelerator (Act-A) for the procurement and distribution of diagnostics, remedies and vaccines against Covid-19. Part of Act-A is the Covax initiative, through which poor countries in particular are supplied with vaccines.
Extensive help from the Federal Republic
Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) explained that the majority of the currently committed funds (1.1 billion euros) will go to Act-A. This makes Germany the first major donor to pledge its share of the global funding for the initiative in 2022. According to the information, the Federal Republic had provided a total of 2.2 billion euros last year. Furthermore, Germany is investing more than 200 million euros in bilaterally agreed projects to support partner countries on site with vaccination campaigns and logistics.
Three weeks ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) complained that Act Accelerator was still missing around 14 billion euros and called on donors to close the financial gap. Schulze emphasized that with its commitment, Germany is now fulfilling “its fair share of the total funding requirements of Act-A calculated by the WHO” for this year. Subject to the approval of the Bundestag, your ministry will contribute a good half of the funds to this commitment. The minister added that vaccination logistics are a particular focus. It’s about “getting the vaccine up your upper arms, even in remote villages”. In addition, medicines and oxygen would have to reach the health stations and hospitals.