The Diplomat
Spain will donate more than 20 million vaccines to Africa through the COVAX initiative to help in the fight against COVID-19 and new variants in this continent.
According to a press release issued yesterday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the course of this week “more than ten million vaccines will have been delivered to countries on the African continent, and at least another ten million will be delivered in the coming weeks, although the destinations have yet to be confirmed”.
The first African destination of the aid has been Ivory Coast, which last November 4 received the first Spanish delivery through COVAX and is expected to receive today a second batch of more than 1,250,000 vaccines from Johnson & Johnson. On the other hand, Angola has received 3,417,600 vaccines from Moderna and Johnson&Johnson in the last few days. Recipient countries also include Mauritania, Egypt – with more than four million doses – and the Republic of Congo.
“These figures are a clear demonstration of Spain’s international solidarity with its partners and place us as one of the most committed countries in the European Union in promoting equitable access to vaccines,” assured the Ministry, which recalled that, in compliance with the Plan for Universal Access to Solidarity Vaccination approved by the Government on January 19, the President of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, announced at the G-20 summit that Spain would donate 50 million vaccines through COVAX. Of these, at least 20 million will be destined for countries in sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. Spain is already the second largest donor country in Latin America and is among the top five countries in terms of donations through the COVAX mechanism.
