The European Union has exported more than a billion Covid-19 vaccines produced in member states since December last year.
“We have reached an important milestone with the delivery of these doses to more than 150 countries, from Japan to Turkey, from the United Kingdom to New Zealand, from South Africa to Brazil,” said European Union President Ursula von der Leyen. Commission. “Of that, about 87 million doses have been delivered to poorer countries through the Covax program.”
Von der Leyen points out in a statement that the EU is by far the largest exporter of Covid-19 vaccines and that the EU has shared as many doses with the world as vaccines have been supplied to EU citizens. She says other countries should step up their efforts to ensure that residents elsewhere in the world are also fully vaccinated.
According to her, 75 percent of all adult EU citizens have now been fully vaccinated. The EU will join President Joe Biden at the next G20 summit of the richest countries to call for a target of 70 percent vaccination coverage worldwide by 2022.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on Western countries to share their vaccines with poorer countries through the international Covax program. “The EU will donate at least 500 million doses to the most vulnerable countries in the coming months,” said von der Leyen.