Australia to pledge $207 mln for regional vaccine program

Australia will pledge A$300 million ($207 million) to offer vaccines to kids within the Indo-Pacific area at a Global Vaccine Summit on Thursday, its international minister stated on the eve of the digital assembly.

“Immunisation saves lives,” Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne stated in an announcement. “The COVID-19 pandemic has served as yet another reminder that investing in vaccine access is critical to regional health security.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will make the pledge on the digital summit hosted by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to boost funds for the GAVI vaccine alliance, a public-private world well being partnership.

GAVI is backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, UNICEF and others, and arranges bulk buys to cut back vaccine prices for poor nations.

The summit goals to boost at the very least $7.four billion for GAVI to immunise 300 million kids on the planet’s poorest nations by 2025 towards illnesses resembling polio, diphtheria and measles.

Australia’s funding dedication will assist to make sure that GAVI maintains a robust focus within the Indo-Pacific area, Payne stated.

GAVI will spend $800 million over 5 years offering entry to vaccines for 140 million kids within the Indo-Pacific.

Under this system, four million kids in Indonesia will entry pneumococcal vaccines at 1 / 4 of the business price, and 400,000 kids in Papua New Guinea will entry vaccines underneath this system, Payne stated.

GAVI will present $200 million to proceed immunisation packages the place potential throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and can later organise catch-up immunisation campaigns.

Alex Hawke, Australia’s Minister for International Development and the Pacific, stated greater than 1.5 million kids within the Pacific and Timor-Leste had beforehand been vaccinated underneath this system.