U.S. President Joe Biden, on Friday joined leaders of the G7 and guest countries to make a commitment of providing more than one billion additional COVID-19 vaccine doses for the world at G7 summit.
Biden, in a statement from the White House in Washington, DC said of the one billion vaccine doses, 500 million would come from the United States.
The U.S. president said that the commitment formed the basis of a comprehensive set of G7+ actions towards ending this global pandemic in 2022.
The G7 countries are a group of the world’s seven largest advanced economies namely: the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada, France, Japan and the United States.
“The G7+ action plan that will be agreed to by leaders in Cornwall includes vaccinating the world’s most vulnerable.
“Providing emergency supplies, bolstering world-wide economic recovery, and positioning the international community to prepare for, prevent, detect, and respond to future biological catastrophes.
“The United States will lead the G7+ in a global COVID-19 vaccination campaign, providing 500 million safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for the world through COVAX, with delivery starting in August 2021,’’ he said.
The donation, which he announced on Thursday, is the largest single donation of vaccines in history.
It comprises half of the G7+ commitment to provide an additional one billion safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine doses over the next 12 months, especially to the world’s most vulnerable.
In addition, Biden said that the U.S. was taking concrete and tangible steps to meet the ambition of the G7+ and drive action to end this pandemic and prevent the next.
“We call on other countries and private sector partners to join us,’’ he said.
According to him, the United States remains committed to saving lives and ending the COVID-19 pandemic now.
“We look forward to the adoption of the G7+ action plan this weekend; we call on other countries and private sector partners to support this ambition.’’
The G7 summit which started on Friday at Cornwall, UK is expected to end on Sunday.
On the first day, leaders discussed recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic, focusing on questions such as COVID-19 vaccine donations and financial aid to build vaccine production sites around the world.
