UK’s support to global vaccine facility to help Pakistan’s COVID-19 vaccination program
Pakistan is set to receive a delivery of 17 million doses of the UK-developed Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine shortly with the first 7m expected before April and the next 10m doses likely before June.
These doses will be made available to Pakistan via the global COVAX facility with the support of the UK which has committed £548m to the COVAX initiative, making the UK the largest single donor.
The doses will help protect 8.5m people from the virus, which has already claimed over 12,000 lives in Pakistan, said a statement issued by the British High Commission.
45 million doses for Pakistanis in 2021
Overall, the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) has committed to supply Pakistan with vaccines for 45 million people in 2021 alone. COVAX is an international initiative to support the discovery, manufacture and fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines for one billion people by the end of 2021.
British High Commissioner Dr Christian Turner said that “The COVAX facility has been the main way the world has united to make sure all countries get the vaccines they need as quickly as possible, including Pakistan. The UK has been a world leader in supporting COVAX which has committed to supplying Pakistan with COVID-19 vaccines for 45m people this year.”
The British High Commissioner added that the UK has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Pakistan in the pandemic, pivoting around £20m of UK aid to help Pakistan fight the pandemic. This includes funding the World Health Organization (WHO) since April 2020 to build laboratory testing capacity through training and provision of equipment across Pakistan.
The UK government official statement also informed that the country is at the forefront of efforts to drive unprecedented global collaboration and resourcing for the development and delivery of new vaccines, treatments and tests at the speed and scale required. “
The UK-hosted Global Vaccines Summit on 4 June 2020 raised US$8.8 billion from 32 donor governments and 12 foundations, corporations and organizations to replenish Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) funding over the coming five years. This will help support the delivery of life-saving vaccinations in 68 countries and will be integral to the distribution of a coronavirus vaccine once it is developed.”