The 2022 Break COVID Now Summit, co-hosted by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance alongside the governments of Germany, Ghana, Indonesia and Senegal saw world leaders come together to reaffirm support for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and acting urgently to break COVID now.
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With Germany, Indonesia and Senegal holding Presidencies in the G7, G20 and AU respectively, the Summit represented an affirmation of the international community's support for COVAX's multilateral approach to vaccine equity.
The event also successfully secured commitments valued at $4.8 billion for the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), the mechanism which supports equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for lower-income countries.
These commitments mean a total of $1.7 billion in new sovereign donor pledges towards the 2022 AMC fundraising ask, as well as $2.1 billion worth of commitments via new innovative financial mechanisms provided by the EIB and the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and least $1 billion made available by three multilateral development banks (MDBs) - World Bank, Asian Development Bank and European Investment Bank (EIB).
The commitments made will enable COVAX to provide urgent delivery support for lower-income countries and ensure dose donations can be shipped and administered.
They have also enabled Gavi to launch the Pandemic Vaccine Pool to support future procurement of new COVID-19 vaccines, on behalf of COVAX AMC participants, should they be needed.
Commitments from MDBs enable low-cost financing for these countries to purchase additional vaccines beyond those that are donor-funded.
New donor commitments made to the Gavi Covax AMC include:
Japan, co-host of the 2021 AMC Summit, pledged $500 million
Germany, co-host of today's Break COVID Now Summit, pledged EUR 400 million
Canada pledged CAD 220 million
Brazil pledged $86.7 million
European Commission EUR 75 million
Australia pledged AUD 85 million
Finland pledged EUR 2 million
Iceland pledged ISK 250 million
Luxembourg pledged EUR 1 million
Vietnam pledged $500,000
Regional Government of Catalonia, Spain pledged EUR 290'000
Provincial Council of Bizkaia, Spain pledged EUR 100'000
Estonia pledged EUR 40,000
Malta pledged EUR 40,000
Workday Foundation pledged $300,000
CODE(RED) Campaign pledged $200,000
Other donors also pledged a total of $122.6 million. ■
Predominant upper-level ridging stretching from the Southwest to the southern High Plains will allow for another day of record-breaking heat across parts of Nevada and Arizona today.