COVID-19: India Pledges $15 Million To International Vaccine Alliance GAVI

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to donate USD 15 million to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI). He made the announcement during the Global Vaccine Summit hosted by the United Kingdom (UK) on June 4, 2020.

The virtual summit was opened by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson who urged the nations around the world to pledge for vaccination funding in order to save millions of lives as well as to protect the world from future outbreaks.

PM Boris Johnson stated that the UK is the single biggest donor to the international effort for finding the COVID-19 vaccine. It will also remain the world’s leading donor to GAVI as it will be contributing 1.65 billion pounds over the next five years.

In his address, PM Modi said that India stands in solidarity with the World in these challenging times and that India’s civilization teaches to see the world as one family and that during this pandemic it had tried to live up to this teaching.

He explained that India did it so by sharing the country’s available stocks of medicines with over 120 countries, by forging a common response strategy in its immediate neighbourhood and by providing specific support to countries that sought it, while also protecting India’s own vast population.

PM Modi said that COVID19 pandemic, in some ways, has exposed the limitations of global cooperation and that for the first time in recent history, the humankind faces a clear common enemy.

Referring to GAVI, he said it is not just a global alliance but also a symbol of global solidarity and a reminder of that by helping others we can also help ourselves.

He said India has a vast population and limited health facilities and that it understands the importance of immunization.

It was brought to everyone’s attention that India has digitized its entire vaccine supply line and developed an electronic vaccine intelligence network to monitor the integrity of its cold chain.

These innovations are ensuring the availability of safe and potent vaccines in the right quantities at the right time till the last mile, he said

India is also the World’s foremost producer of vaccines and that it is fortunate to contribute to the immunization of about 60 per cent of the World’s children.

PM Modi remarked that India recognizes and values the work of GAVI, that is why it became a donor to GAVI while still being eligible for GAVI support.

Prime Minister said India’s support to GAVI is not only financial but that India’s huge demand also brings down the Global price of vaccines for all, saving almost 400 Million Dollars for GAVI over the past five years.

Highlights of the Global Vaccine Summit:

The leaders of around 35 heads of states virtually joined the conference that aimed at raising USD 7.4 million to immunise further 300 million children in the poorest countries of the world by 2025.

The UK government mentioned that the funding that will be raised from the summit will not only protect the children from deadly diseases like diphtheria, polio, and measles to save up to 8 million lives but it will also help in ensuring a global recovery from Coronavirus pandemic.

PM Boris Johnson stated that the UK is the single biggest donor to the international effort for finding the COVID-19 vaccine. It will also remain the world’s leading donor to GAVI as it will be contributing 1.65 billion pounds over the next five years.

UK government had mentioned that vaccinating children against the other deadly diseases will protect the healthcare systems of the world’s poorest countries so that they can also cope with rising cases of COVID-19.

UK has also been the single largest donor of any country to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

Presently as the entire world is focused on tackling Coronavirus, UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO) and GAVI have warned the countries that the pandemic has been disrupting routine immunisation, which affects approximately 80 million children under the age of one across 68 countries.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, UK International Development Secretary, stated that as the world is quite rightly focused on responding to the invisible killer, the ongoing pandemic cannot disrupt the routine immunisation of some of the world’s poorest countries. It can cause other deadly diseases to spread across the globe.

She further stated that we all know vaccines work which is why at today’s summit everyone should step up and pledge funds to GAVI. It will help to continue saving the lives of millions of children as well as protect everyone from deadly diseases.

GAVI has also been addressing the immediate needs triggered by COVID-19. It also provides immediate medical supplies and helps in increasing testing and surveillance of the disease.

During the summit, it was also mentioned that if an effective and safe COVID-19 vaccine is developed, GAVI will play a role in its delivery around the world which will ensure a collective global recovery and will also reduce risk of future waves of infection.

CEO of GAVI, the vaccine alliance, Dr Seth Berkley mentioned that in the past decade, incredible progress boosting vaccine coverage has been witnessed in the world’s poorest countries and more children in more countries are now protected against diseases than any point in history.

However, COVID-19 has put disruption to the vaccine programmes worldwide and there is now a real prospect of a resurgence of diseases such as yellow fever, polio, measles.

Berkley further added that this is why the Global Vaccine Summit is important as it will bring leaders from around the world to build global health security and keep everyone safe from future outbreaks.

from League of India