Leaders of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on Thursday urged the advanced economies of the Group of Seven G7 to release any excess COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries as soon as possible, and called on manufacturers to increase production. .
In a joint statement to the G7, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank President David Malpass called on governments, pharmaceutical companies, and groups involved in vaccine procurement to drive transparency about procurement. , financing and deliveries.
“Distributing vaccines more widely is both an urgent economic necessity and a moral imperative. The coronavirus pandemic will not end until everyone has access to vaccines, including people in developing countries,” they said.
Malpass and Georgieva will meet in person next Friday and Saturday with finance officials from the G7 countries (Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, France and Japan), the COVID-19 pandemic will be a central topic.
Both organizations welcomed US plans to distribute the first 25 million of the 80 million doses of vaccines that Washington has pledged to share globally by the end of this month.
“It is a good start and I hope there will be more doses available, especially for countries with implementation programs,” Malpass told Reuters.
The new coronavirus has killed more than 3.7 million people worldwide, according to a Reuters tally.
While about half of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, the percentage in developing countries is still in the single digits, said Mamta Murthi, vice president for human development at the World Bank.
The World Bank, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization this week backed a $ 50 billion IMF plan to end the pandemic by expanding access to vaccines.
