Japan actively participates in the COVAX facility by donating another $800 million to the fund in addition to the previously sent $200 million.
The head of the Japanese government Yoshihide Suga participated on Wednesday at the virtual Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment Summit, hosted by Japan and the global vaccine alliance Gavi.
“I would like to deliver hope in the form of vaccines to as many people as possible in the world equally, as early as possible,” said Suga.
The summit’s aim was to raise an additional $2 billion from governments and the private sector.
As of Wednesday, Gavi hopes to raise $8.3 billion to deliver 1.8 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to low-income countries, enough to vaccinate about half of the adult population in those countries by early 2022.
Japan urges to donate to COVAX
Japan’s continuing support to other countries will help to provide 30 million doses of locally made vaccines through COVAX and other funds. The Prime minister added this would happen “in the right time when we have the right conditions, as we currently face the difficult challenges of variants that are spreading and delays in vaccine supplies.”
Suga also pledged to develop Japan’s own vaccines that would be provided globally.
“In the future, we would supply [the vaccines] to the world,” PM said.
To prepare for future pandemics, Suga said Japan would be “improving the clinical trial environment, including through capacity building support.”
The Japanese government unveiled a long-term strategy on Tuesday to enable the speedy development and rollout of new vaccines, Nikkei reported.
