IMF, World Bank Focus on Helping Poor Countries Get COVID-19 Vaccines
IMF – The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are pushing for more COVID-19 vaccine access for the poor countries.
The world is currently on a fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 200 countries and territories logged cases of this coronavirus which now comes in different variants. It has cost over 3 million deaths across the globe.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the COVID-19 pandemic may be a long-term battle and countries must not let their guards down early to prevent another spike in the cases of the disease. Even WHO did not expect how fast the said coronavirus will spread among countries.
It has been more than a year now since WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The much awaited vaccines against this coronavirus are at hand now. Among these are Sinovac, Sinopharm, Moderana, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Sputnik. However, not all countries have the capacity to get a huge load of the jabs.
To help the poor nations get more COVID-19 vaccines, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are pushing for the expansion of the access to the jabs. Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva is pushing for a $50 billion joint effort with WHO for the expansion of the access to the vaccines.
The said proposal which is supported by the World Bank and the World Trade Organization will be presented by Georgieva on Friday to the G7 richest nations’ finance ministers. Based on the report, they are set to meet in London.
The lenders in Washington believe that the unequal access to the COVID-19 vaccines will greatly affect the pursuit to end the pandemic. It might prolong the situation that has already cost millions of lives.
Aside from expanding the access of the poor countries to the COVID-19 vaccines, the IMF and the World Bank also push for the suspension of the credit payments of low-income countries to G20 and the private lenders.
Peterson Institute for International Economic’s Adnan Mazarei believes in the benefits of the $50 billion plan. He stressed that the bodies behind it should assure that it becomes a matter on the meeting.
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