G20 MINISTERS AGREE ON PLAN TO PROVIDE POOR COUNTRIES WITH COVID-19 VACCINES

Tue 07 September 2021:

On Monday, health ministers from the Group of Twenty (G20) took a step toward developing a plan to prevent the spread of the coronavirus among vulnerable populations in developing countries.

According to Italian Minister of Health Roberto Speranza, the ministers agreed on a broad strategy to provide financial aid and vaccines to prevent the spread of the pandemic in the poorest countries after two days of talks.

The ministers agreed in an unified communique to send a strong message of cooperation, solidarity, and justice, believing that no one should be left behind.

Speranza presided over the talks, which were held in Rome because Italy is the rotating presidency of the G20 this year.

Speranza praised what he called a “Rome pact” for vaccine distribution during a press conference.

“We have a political commitment to distribute vaccines to the entire world,” Speranza told journalists. “It is only by working together that we can guarantee a fair distribution of the vaccines that can protect us from the spread of COVID-19.”

On the sidelines of the talks, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said his country is committed to donating at least 100 million COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries by the end of this year.

“The pandemic will be over only when the infection rate subsidies globally,” Spahn said, adding that the risk of new variants would continue as long as there were clusters of unvaccinated people in parts of the world.

Stella Kyriakides, the European Union’s commissioner for health and food safety, agreed with Spahn’s point in remarks with reporters on the sidelines of the talks. Kyriakides said the world should aim to inoculate at least 40 percent of the world’s population by the end of 2021.

“It is clear that our goal should be to vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate,” Kyriakides said. “We have to work toward the 40-percent goal.”

She added that a key part of that strategy would be to ramp up vaccine production in Africa, the continent that the World Health Organization says has the lowest overall vaccination rate in percentage terms. Kyriakides said that producing more vaccines in Africa would “allow us to reach all parts of the continent quicker and more efficiently.”

In addition to discussing ways to stop the current pandemic from spreading, Speranza said the G20 would work toward a “One Health” approach, which would help provide a more comprehensive approach to future epidemics and pandemics, in part by “acknowledging that humans, animals, and the environment are interconnected” and that an effective defense against health emergencies must address all three.

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