The Canadian government pledged at the G20 summit on Saturday to provide millions of additional doses of vaccines to poor countries to fight the global covid-19 pandemic.
“Canada will donate the equivalent of at least 200 million doses to the Covax mechanism by the end of 2022,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement.
Of this amount, 10 million doses of Moderna vaccine will be offered “quickly” to developing countries, an “immediate” commitment that the Canadian government says it is making.
Coordinated by the Alliance for Vaccines and the World Health Organization (WHO), the Covax system aims to 92 disadvantaged states and territories receive free vaccines funded by the most prosperous nations.
You may be interested:
Venezuelans registered in the Temporary Protection Status can be vaccinated
Venezuelan citizen deported for homicide
Canada also promised “$ 15 million to help increase vaccine production in South Africa“Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland said at a press conference in Rome.
The money will go to the creation of a “technology transfer center” in the region to produce messenger RNA vaccines against covid-19.
“We do not control the production, but by 2022 we are convinced that it will be possible to contribute at this level,” confirmed Freeland, calling Canada’s commitment “sincere” and “very important”.
In August, American company Moderna announced plans to build vaccine manufacturing plant in Canada, the first outside the United States.
According to the Canadian government, the Covax program had received less than three million of the 40 million doses already committed by Canada on Saturday, and additional deliveries are expected “in the coming days”.
“Amateur web enthusiast. Award-winning creator. Extreme music expert. Wannabe analyst. Organizer. Hipster-friendly tv scholar. Twitter guru.”