The coronavirus pandemic can only be considered beaten once everyone in the world has been immunized against Covid-19, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel said, after she’d met with the G7 leaders at a virtual summit on Friday.
Speaking to reporters, Merkel said she had stressed in her remarks to the group that the “pandemic is not over until all people in the world have been vaccinated,” adding: “Everyone must participate.”
“The [coronavirus] pandemic in particular has shown how much we are diverging from one another, worldwide.”
On Friday the head of the EU’s executive body, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the bloc would put up €100 million ($121 million) to fund the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in Africa.
The Commission president said the EU would be helping to “ramp up” manufacturing capacity across the continent under vaccine-licensing agreements, as well as buying equipment and training staff.
The 27-nation bloc has also said it will double its contributions to the vaccine-sharing Covax facility, to a billion euro.
Germany, meanwhile, will contribute €1.5 billion to global efforts against the pandemic, and the G7 as a whole will contribute €10.3 billion, some of which will go towards Covax.
Covax is the World Health Organization (WHO)-backed initiative to try and ensure equitable access to a vaccine between the world’s more developed economies and poorer nations.
On Thursday, the WHO’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for vaccine-producing countries to donate jabs to Covax, rather than act individually.
The current global divide over access to jabs means that some poorer countries are still without Covid-19 vaccines, while others, including Canada, the UK, US, Australia and those in the EU have ordered more doses then they technically require.
Like this story? Share it with a friend!
The coronavirus pandemic can only be considered beaten once everyone in the world has been immunized against Covid-19, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel said, after she’d met with the G7 leaders at a virtual summit on Friday. Read Full Article at RT.com Read More
In preparation for the expected Ukrainian spring offensive, Poland announced on May 8 that it had transferred 10 MiG-29 fighter jets to Kiev. Following Kiev’s plea for fighter jets, Poland became the first country to make the pledge and transferred four in April. In this way, it is evident that Poland is becoming a […]
Israeli strikes in Syria have been carried out with the secret coordination and approval of the US military, the Wall Street Journal has reported. America is making sure the IDF attacks don’t interfere with their operations in the country, US officials claim. Israeli strikes against Iranian-linked targets in Syria have been carried out with the […]
Regardless of the success of the ceasefire, the Israeli side is the defeated one. After more than a year of bloody fighting in the Gaza Strip, both sides reached a ceasefire agreement. Hamas and Israel reportedly agreed to halt hostilities from January on, implementing a multiple step “pacification” plan to end the war. The agreement […]
