The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, participated yesterday in the second COVID-19 World Summit, convened by the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and in which he announced that Spain will allocate almost 300 million euros to the donation of vaccines and the financing of health projects in the world.
The meeting was convened by the US with the support of Belize, Germany, Indonesia and Senegal and was held in a live virtual format. During his speech, Pedro Sánchez -who was invited by the organization to form part of the high-level segment of the Summit- warned that the pandemic has shown that there are “lessons to be learned” for future health crises, because “global health is a public good, no one would question it now, so we must act accordingly”.
According to the President of the Government, just as in 2020 the main objective was to develop an effective vaccine against COVID-19 and in 2021 the challenge was to produce and distribute it worldwide, “today, in 2022, we need to put those vaccines in people’s arms, and strengthening public health systems is vital to achieve that goal”.
For all these reasons, Pedro Sánchez announced that Spain will allocate 200 million dollars (more than 192 million euros) for the donation of an additional 30 million COVID vaccines, through COVAX and bilaterally, which will be added to the 70 million doses already delivered. In this way, if the epidemiological conditions so require, Spain will reach the milestone of 100 million vaccines donated. According to the Chief Executive, Spain has achieved one of the highest vaccination rates in the world and is already the second largest donor in Latin America and the seventh largest in the global sphere.
Sánchez also informed that 100 million Euros will be allocated to strengthen public health systems through projects related to COVID-19, which will be executed by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). Pedro Sánchez also indicated that Spain is supporting the development of a new vaccine -based on proteins- by HIPRA Human Health, which will help to tackle new variants that could extend the duration of the pandemic.
President Sánchez also stressed the need to improve global mechanisms for transferring technology to decentralize the production of healthcare products in all regions. For this reason, he said, Spain supports the production of vaccines in Latin America and has joined the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID-19 Technology Access Group. “We must protect, safeguard and invest in health and health workers” and, for this reason, Spain is co-leading the Effort Line in the framework of the Global Action Plan developed by the US and other partners, he said. “We must act together, and Spain is ready to do so,” he concluded.
