Coronavirus: billions raised in global vaccine drive for world’s poorest children, including US$20 million from China

Name: Coronavirus: Brazil overtakes Italy as nation with the world’s third-highest Covid-19 death toll
Uploaded: 2020-06-05T15:00:18.000Z
Duration: 1 min 45 s
Description: Coronavirus: Brazil overtakes Italy as nation with the world’s third-highest Covid-19 death toll

Donors pledge US$8.8 billion – including US$20 million from China – to immunise 300 million over the next five years

Commitments include funds for Covid-19 campaign when vaccinations become available

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Gavi has set up a fund to buy Covid-19 vaccines for the world’s poorest children. Photo: EPA-EFE

Mandy Zuo

Published: 11:00pm, 5 Jun 2020Updated: 1:05am, 6 Jun 2020

Governments and organisations around the world have pledged US$8.8 billion to help immunise children in the world’s poorest regions as the coronavirus pandemic disrupts vaccination programmes, leaving young children vulnerable to disease.

The commitments were announced at the Global Vaccine Summit, an online forum hosted by the British government on Thursday, and will be directed to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which buys and distributes vaccines for children in poverty-stricken areas.

Among the donors were health organisations, businesses and more than 30 countries, including China, which contributed US$20 million. Britain was the biggest donor, pledging US$2 billion, while Japan said it would contribute US$300 million. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which helped establish Gavi two decades ago, pledged US$1.6 billion to the organisation.

“Together we rise to fulfil the greatest shared endeavour of our lifetime – the triumph of humanity over disease, now and for the generations that follow,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in his address to the summit, which was also attended by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Gavi said the money would help supply vaccines against diseases like malaria, pneumonia and HPV, for 300 million children in developing countries over the next five years. Another US$567 million was raised for vaccines against Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. That amount goes to a new “advance market commitment” mechanism to enable poorer countries to have access to any effective vaccines against the coronavirus when they become available.

01:45

Coronavirus: Brazil overtakes Italy as nation with the world’s third-highest Covid-19 death toll

According to the World Health Organisation, 1.5 million people die each year from diseases such as polio and measles that can be prevented by vaccines.