UK pledges to donate 100M vaccine doses to world next year

LONDON

Britain on Friday pledged to donate 100 million doses of surplus vaccine doses to the world next year.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement came as a G7 summit kicks off in Cornwall, England.

The other G7 leaders are also expected to make similar vaccine pledges during the summit, where an effective fight against coronavirus will be one of the main items on the agenda.

Johnson said: “Since the start of this pandemic the UK has led the way in efforts to protect humanity against this deadly disease. Over a year ago we funded the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on the basis it would be distributed at cost to the world.”

“This unprecedented model, which puts people squarely above profit, means over half a billion doses have been administered in 160 countries so far,” he added.

“As a result of the success of the UK’s vaccine programme we are now in a position to share some of our surplus doses with those who need them. In doing so we will take a massive step towards beating this pandemic for good.”

Johnson also said he hoped “my fellow leaders will make similar pledges so that, together, we can vaccinate the world by the end of next year and build back better from coronavirus.”

The British prime minister last week had asked the world leaders to help “vaccinate the entire world by the end of next year.”

The leaders at the summit are expected to announce they will provide at least 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to the world.