EU Pledges 200 Million Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines to Low-Income Nations

The European Union is pledging to donate 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to low-income countries by mid-2022. 

 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the pledge Wednesday in Strasbourg, France during her annual State of the European Union speech before the European Parliament. Von der Leyen said the 200 million doses the EU plans to contribute is in addition to an earlier promise of 250 million doses, which she described as “an investment in solidarity, and it is an investment in global health.” 

 

Von der Leyen said “the scale of injustice and the level of urgency is obvious” with less than 1% of all global doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered in low- and middle-income countries.  

 

“Let’s do everything possible so that it does not turn into a pandemic of the non-vaccinated,” she told the EU lawmakers. 

 

Source: Agencies