The Diplomat
The Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Ángeles Moreno Bau, proposed yesterday that the distribution of vaccines be carried out according to objective criteria based on the epidemiological situation of the recipient countries and that a reservoir of up to 5% of COVAX doses be established for high-risk populations in humanitarian contexts and for refugee population groups.
Moreno Bau made these proposals during his participation, on behalf of Spain, in the fifth meeting of the Facilitation Council of the multilateral initiative called Accelerator for Access to Tools against COVID-19 (ACT-A), whose objective is the rapid development and deployment of vaccines, diagnostics and treatments against the pandemic.
The Government of Spain is a member of the Facilitation Council and has participated in the four previous meetings. Spain has committed 125 million euros to ACT-A, in addition to the contribution it makes through the European Union, which has recently doubled to 1 billion euros. The session was devoted to short-term actions to accelerate the production, supply and pace of global vaccination, as well as the scale-up of diagnostic tests and treatments such as oxygen therapy and dexamethasone. World Health Organization (WHO) Secretary General Tedros Adhanom and European Commission Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Constantine Kyriakakis co-hosted the meeting.
