Japan pledges additional 800 mn dollars to COVAX Facility

Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, pledged an additional 800 million US Dollars to COVAX facility.

Key Points

• Additional grant of 800 mn dollar to COVAX facility aims for “fair distribution of Coronavirus vaccines across the world”.
• Announcement was made during an “online vaccine summit” which was co-hosted by Japan with GAVI vaccine alliance.

Online Vaccine Summit

Online Vaccine Summit was attended by Vice President of United States, Kamala Harris; United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and others.

Japan’s contribution to COVAX

Japan had contributed 200 million dollars to COVAX earlier. He further highlighted, 76 million doses of Coronavirus vaccines have been supplied across 120 countries and regions under COVAX facility. Japan also plans to supply 30 million vaccine doses after considering spread of coronavirus variants and delay in vaccine shipments.

COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access or COVAX

COVAX initiative was launched by GAVI vaccine alliance for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. It is also supported by Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and World Health Organization (WHO). Initiative is one of three pillars of “Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator” initiative which was started by WHO in April 2020. WHO-approved vaccines like Oxford–AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer–BioNTech, Sinovac, Sinopharm and Johnson & Johnson vaccines can be distributed as part of COVAX.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2021