Global leaders pledge billions to vaccines

LONDON: Global leaders have pledged billions during a funding summit for vaccine programmes to help the world’s poorest nations.

The Vaccine Alliance summit aims to raise as much as $7.4 billion (R125bn) to protect against polio, typhoid, measles and other diseases.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who hosted the videoconferenced event, said his country will give $2bn over the next five years. Germany and France each promised $679 million while other major pledges included $600m by Canada and $300m by Japan.

UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres said vaccines were “the most important public health intervention in history” and urged leaders to co-operate to develop a Covid-19 vaccine “as a global public good – a people’s vaccine.”