Canada will donate 10 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to the COVAX vaccine sharing facility and donate $15 million to help make mRNA vaccines in Africa.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the donation in Rome this afternoon while attending the G20 leaders’ summit.
Canada also intends to increase its financial support to COVAX to buy another 63 million doses itself.
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In all, between financial contributions and direct delivery of doses, Canada says it will help deliver at least 200 million shots of vaccine by the end of next year.
Vaccine equity is a big issue on the table at the summit, with warnings from the International Monetary Fund and the World Health Organization, among others, that inequitable distribution of vaccines will postpone the global economic recovery and make it very uneven.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the host of this year’s summit, said in his opening remarks Saturday that the inequitable delivery of vaccines is “startling.”
© 2021 The Canadian Press
