MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Spain will donate 7.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Latin American countries as part of its contribution to the global effort to increase worldwide access to shots through the COVAX facility, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Friday.
Sanchez has followed the lead of French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who promised earlier in the day to distribute 30 million doses each via COVAX.
"Vaccine distribution needs to be accelerated and facilitated. We must strengthen our commitment to the ACT Accelerator and COVAX, increasing financial and non-financial contribution. Spain will play its part, starting with the donation of 7.5 million doses to Latin American partners through COVAX," Sanchez told the Global Health Summit in Rome.
The COVAX facility has been established to even out the playing field by providing access to diagnostics, treatment and vaccines against the disease to low- and middle-income 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.