G7 Pledges $7 Bln in Vaccine Funding for World's Poorest

The G7 countries pledged on Friday nearly $7 billion in extra funding to speed the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to the world’s poor countries.

Yet, the UN secretary general António Guterres said current efforts to distribute vaccines equitably was 'chaotic', adding that a global emergency plan to fight the pandemic is required.

The virtual summit was hosted by Boris Johnson, who led campaigners to demand more detail of the timing and substance of these promises.

Johnson said the the UK would give its surplus to the Covax system, which would distribute vaccines to countries in need.

According to estimates, the G7 countries have bought about 1.5 billion vaccines more than their populations will need. On the other hand, the U.S. administration pledged a $4 billion to Covax.

The EU also promised $140 million to Africa for the vaccination process.

Germany separately provided a further $1.8 billion, increasing an earlier contribution of $800m, and Britain has already contributed $766m to Covax.

On his part, the French president Emmanuel Macron said that the G7 should target 6.5 million health workers in Africa, who require 13 million doses, 3.4% of the supply available in EU.

"If the west did not act quickly, African countries would feel forced to turn to Russia, or China," he added.

The G7 said in a joint statement that they had provided $7.5 Billion to the to the world’s poor countries.

"75% of vaccines had been monopolized by 10 countries, while more than 100 countries had not received a single dose," Guterres said.

Bill Gates said the world’s poorest countries are at least 6-month behind the vaccine program of the G7 countries.