Earlier, President Emmanuel Macron had announced that France will share at least 30 million doses of vaccines by different manufacturers by the end of the year through the COVAX COVID-19 vaccines distribution mechanism…reports Asian Lite News.
France is planning to introduce tighter Covid-19 curbs for travellers from UK when tourism reopens this summer in a bid to prevent the spread of a new virus variant first detected in India and creating concern in Britain, according to media reports.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian suggested that Britain could be put in a health category of its own, somewhere in between the strictest measures that France is imposing on visitors from India and 15 other countries, and more relaxed requirements being readied for visitors from the European Union and some other countries, it was reported.
Earlier, President Emmanuel Macron had announced that France will share at least 30 million doses of vaccines by different manufacturers by the end of the year through the COVAX COVID-19 vaccines distribution mechanism.
“France was the first to share its vaccines via the COVAX mechanism … and in this context, I want to say very seriously now that France will share at least 30 million doses of different vaccines by the end of the year,” Macron told the Global Health Summit.
“We must refrain from playing politics with our vaccines. I would like to be clear with you: no to cronyism, yes to vaccine multilaterialism,” Macron said.
The French president’s initiative was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who pledged to follow her colleague’s example.
“I too would like to follow suit, following the French example, and say that we will make available by the end of the year another 30 million doses of vaccines,” Merkel said, adding that this pandemic’s grip on the world is still tight and the issue of new variants still needs to be addressed.
As the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines continues across the world, it has revealed stark inequality between the countries that can afford to purchase and administer the remedy and those lacking financial and infrastructure capacity to do so.
The COVAX facility has been established to even out the playing field by providing access to diagnostics, treatment and vaccines against the disease to developing countries. COVAX aims to ship close to 2 billion doses of vaccines by the end of 2021, in an unprecedented global effort to guarantee access to vaccines for all. (with inputs from ANI/Sputnik)
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