China joins fair vaccine distribution agreement

BEIJING: China yesterday said it had joined a global Covid19 vaccine initiative coled by the World Health Organisation (WHO), becoming the biggest economy to date to pledge support to help buy and distribute the vaccine shots fairly.

The move by China, where the new coronavirus was first reported, comes as it holds separate talks with the WHO to have its locally produced Covid19 vaccines assessed for international use.

It also comes amid international criticism about Beijing’s handling of the pandemic that led unfavourable views towards China to soar in a recent survey of advanced countries.

A statement from the Chinese foreign ministry yesterday did not give details on the level of support Beijing will provide to the programme, known as Covax, though President Xi Jinping pledged in May $NZ3 billion over the next two years to help deal with the pandemic that has killed more than 1 million people.

‘‘We are taking this concrete step to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines, especially to developing countries, and hope more capable countries will also join and support Covax,’’ Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

The Covax initiative aims to deliver at least 2 billion doses of vaccines by the end of 2021.

China joins 168 countries that have already announced their participation in Covax, including 76 wealthy, selffinancing ones.

Significantly, neither the United States nor Russia has signed up for the programme.

Covax, coled by the GAVI vaccines alliance, the WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, is designed to discourage nations from hoarding Covid19 vaccines and to focus on first vaccinating the highestrisk people in every country. — Reuters