NZ gifts jab doses as PM calls for ‘team of 7.8b’

New Zealand will donate more than

1.6 million Covid-19 doses through an international vaccine-sharing programme, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has revealed.

This is enough to vaccinate

800,000 people — many of whom will be health workers and vulnerable people in the Pacific.

Ardern made the announcement at the Gavi Covax event yesterday, where she was the first world leader to make a pledge.

“In New Zealand, we have been tackling Covid-19 collectively, as the team of 5 million,” she said in a preprepared video.

“Now we need to act globally as the team of 7.8 billion.”

Further details were scarce last night but in early March, Ardern and Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said surplus vaccines would be donated “across our wider portfolio to the Pacific and developing countries worldwide”.

“We are committed to ensuring that any doses not needed here are put to good use elsewhere,” Hipkins said at the time.

In her video, Ardern said: “We welcome efforts to provide more doses of the vaccine to developing countries.”

She said as an international community, “we need to do all we can to increase the supply of vaccines”.

Sharing doses was something that could help, Ardern said.

New Zealand had already given $17 million to Covax and the 1.6 million doses were fully funded, she confirmed.

Other world leaders also made vaccine pledges. The Netherlands’ Minister for Foreign Trade, Sigrid Kaag, said: “We must upscale the availability of vaccines worldwide, ensure that they reach the most vulnerable and that health systems are strong enough.

The Netherlands gave an extra €40 million ($67m) to Covax AMC, in addition to €52m already donated.