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Summary
- The UK government will be donating nine million vaccines starting this week
- Indonesia, Jamaica and Kenya are amongst the countries who stand to benefit
- The government has pledged to donate 100 million vaccines by the end of June 2022
With the monumental success of the nationwide vaccination programme in the United Kingdom, the government has now decided to begin donating the surplus doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, effectively supporting the scarce nations with the life-saving jab. The Downing Street administration has pledged to donate as much as 100 million Covid-19 vaccines to different parts of the world by the end of June 2022.
Of the 100 million doses, 80 million will be donated through the World Health Organisation’s COVAX initiative.
Beginning the donation drive, the UK government will be donating nine million vaccines from the present week. All of these vaccines will be donated bilaterally, as well as through the COVAX programme of the WHO.
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Indonesia, Jamaica and Kenya are amongst the countries who stand to benefit from the vaccine donation as the UK has decided to offer four million doses directly to the countries that are in immediate need of the Covid-19 vaccine. The rest of the five million will be sent to the COVAX initiative, to strengthen the efforts of the WHO in facilitating global and equitable access to the Covid-19 vaccines.
Kenya will be the biggest beneficiary of the first tranche of donation as the nation would be receiving 817,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, while Indonesia and Jamaica will get 600,000 and 300,000 doses, respectively.
The COVAX remains on track to distribute the surplus vaccine doses to the lower-income countries through an equitable allocation system following which the countries get the set number of jabs according to the predefined priorities set.
The Covid-19 jabs co-produced by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc will be donated. All of these vaccines are manufactured by Oxford Biomedica and packaged in Wrexham, North Wales. The onset of Covid-19 vaccine donation programme will help the UK to meet the pledged target by the G7 leaders of inoculating every individual across the world, collectively putting an end to the pandemic in 2022.
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Of the 100 million target of donation by the UK, the country has decided to send 30 million Covid-19 jabs by the end of this year. With the resurgence of Covid fears across the world, several geographies are experiencing a high number of Covid-19 cases. The worries led by the rapid spread of the Delta variant and its lineages, the daily rate of hospitalisation and mortality has increased in the recent past.
The first donation of Covid-19 jabs by the UK will help meet the urgent need for doses for many countries from the South East Asian, African and Caribbean regions.
