France will give poor countries 120 million doses of vaccine against Covid-19, double what it previously planned, President Emmanuel Macron promised on Saturday.
“The injustice is that in other continents, obviously, vaccination is very late.
Because of us, collectively.
In Africa, it is barely 3% of the population who is vaccinated - we must go faster, stronger ", launched the Head of State in a video sequence broadcast during the concert in Paris of the charity. Global Citizen.
“France is committed to doubling the number of doses it gives.
We will go from 60 million to 120 million offered doses.
That is to say more doses, to date, than we have done in the country, ”he said.
The United States had announced on Wednesday its intention to double its donations of Covid-19 vaccines, bringing the total of doses promised to poor countries to more than 1.1 billion, President Joe Biden making clear his intention to lead the global response to the pandemic.
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“We need other high-income countries to put their ambitious pledges into practice,” Biden said.
The European Union, with which the United States intends to cooperate closely, will distribute more than 500 million doses.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a video message to the UN released on Tuesday, said "ensuring fair and equitable distribution of vaccines around the world is a pressing priority."
China intends "to provide a total of 2 billion doses of vaccine to the world by the end of the year," he said, repeating a figure already given by the Chinese authorities, who do not however specify in which proportion these are sales or donations.
Africa in particular will run out of almost 500 million doses
According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) a few days ago, Africa in particular will miss almost 500 million doses compared to the global target of 40% of vaccinated by the end of the year. 'year. Missing doses, the Covax mechanism will ship around 150 million fewer vaccines to Africa than expected. Taking this deficit into account, 470 million doses of vaccine expected on the continent will enable only 17% of the population to be vaccinated.
Emmanuel Macron also announced “concrete commitments” to help UNICEF organize vaccination campaigns in African countries, “and put us in a position to help health care systems”.
The French president has also pledged to redirect 20% in favor of a revival of African economies from the special drawing rights that it receives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to Mr. Macron, "if all the great powers do like France, then we will reach 100 billion for Africa".
Finally, he pledged that Paris would support "up to 333 million euros" programs in favor of education in Africa.
