Published 15:40 IST, June 4th 2020
Australia to pledge $207 million for vaccine program in Indo-Pacific region
Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne said that the country will pledge $207 million to provide vaccines to children in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne on June 4 reportedly said that the country will pledge $207 million to provide vaccines to children in the Indo-Pacific region. Payne in a statement said that immunisation saves lives and the COVID-19 pandemic has served as yet another reminder than investing in vaccine access is critical to regional health security.
The Australian Prime Minister will be making the pledge at the Global Vaccine Summit which is hosted by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to raise funds for the GAVI vaccine alliance, which is a public-private global health partnership. GAVI is backed by Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organisation, the World Bank, UNICEF and others, it arranges bulk buys to reduce vaccine costs for poor countries.
The Global Vaccine Summit is aimed to raise at least $7.4 billion for GAVI to immunise approximately 300 million children in the world’s poorest countries by 2025 against diseases such as polio, diphtheria and measles. The pledge by Australia will reportedly help to ensure that GAVI maintains a strong focus in the Indo-Pacific region. Overall, GAVI will be spending $800 million over five years in a bid to provide access to vaccines for 140 million children in the Indo-Pacific.
As per reports, under the program, four million children in Indonesia will access pneumococcal vaccines at a quarter of the commercial cost. Moreover, 400,000 children in Papua New Guinea will also have access to vaccines under the program. GAVI will be providing $200 million to continue immunisation programs where possible during coronavirus pandemic.
1.5 million children already vaccinated
The program will later also organise ‘catch-up immunisation campaigns’. While speaking to an international media outlet, Alex Hawke, Australia’s Minister for International Development and the Pacific, said that more than 1.5 million children in the Pacific and Timor-Leste had previously been vaccinated under the program.
With massive disruptions to global immunisation programmes from the COVID-19 pandemic, health experts fear that much of the developing world will not be able to get a vaccine for the virus even once it is ready. According to the UN agencies and the GAVI vaccine alliance, nearly 80 million children in at least 68 countries may be at risk of diphtheria, measles and polio because routine immunisation efforts have been thrown into disarray by travel restrictions, delivery delays and parents’ fear of leaving home.
(Image: AP)
Updated 15:40 IST, June 4th 2020