G-7 leaders on Thursday have pledged to share one billion coronavirus vaccines internationally.
According to a report by The Associated Press, the move was announced by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson before the kick-off of the G-7 summit.
Included in the countries among the G-7 are the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Italy, France and Japan.
On Wednesday, the US has already announced its initiative to provide 500 million vaccine doses to the amount vowed by the group.
The half-billion Pfizer doses will be supplied by the US to 100 other nations starting this year until 2022.
“I think the European Union needs to have at least the same level of ambition as the United States,” said French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday.
“It’s almost more important to say how many (doses) we deliver the next month than making promises to be fulfilled in 18 months from now,” he said. The country’s plan only covers only until the end of 2021. This year, it committed 30 million doses to be provided to other nations.
The UK, on the other hand, said it will pitch in five million doses in the next two weeks.
The initiative of the leaders were made as the virus continued to claim lives, killing more people this year as compared to 2020. Its impact continued despite several wealthy nations resumed multiple activities and vaccines were made more available in richer countries.
Impoverished countries, who are not spared from the impact of the virus, can access insufficient amounts of the vaccines that they need to put the health crisis under control.
