Bill Gates pledges extra COVID vaccine aid for Nigeria, others

THE Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced plans to donate over $50 million worth of COVID-19 vaccine to Nigeria and other 91 lower-income countries.

  Gates pledged the donation at the on-going Gavi’s COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) Summit being co-hosted by the government of Japan and Gavi being held to brainstorm on better ways of building support for procurement of COVID-19 vaccines and equitably distributing them to lower-income countries.

  Eminent world leaders from public and private sector, civil society, and technical partners are attending the summit.

  A statement signed by CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mark Suzman, said the package will build on $156 million in previous commitments by his foundation to the COVAX AMC to bring its total commitment to the COVID-19 response to more than $1.8 billion.

  “The world must urgently come together to expand equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, or we risk more deaths and the emergence of new variants that could prolong the pandemic for everyone. Thanks to today’s contributions, especially Japan’s generous pledge and its leadership in global health, we’ve taken an important step towards that goal. This summit is a powerful example of what can be achieved when we act collectively to control the pandemic and save lives,” he said.

  The foundation also urged high-income countries to share at least 1 billion excess COVID-19 vaccines with lower-income countries as soon as possible.