WHO welcomes funding commitments made at Global Vaccine Summit, hosted virtually by the UK government. The Summit is Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance’s third pledging conference and follows the successful Berlin summit in January 2015.

The new pledges will enable Gavi to protect the next generation and reduce disease inequality by reaching an additional 300 million children with vaccines by 2025.

“Thanks to vaccines, hundreds of millions of deaths have been prevented. Polio has been pushed to the brink of eradication, and just in the past few years new vaccines have become available for Ebola and malaria,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

“But vaccines only realize their true power when they are deployed to protect the poorest and most vulnerable. The COVID-19 pandemic is unravelling many of the gains we have made, with vaccination campaigns for polio, cholera, measles, diphtheria, and meningitis.”

The bold funding commitments mean that the Gavi Alliance will be better able to maintain immunization in lower-income countries, mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. They will also help strengthen health systems.

The backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic is a sobering reminder of how much individual health depends on collective health and the critical role that vaccines play in keeping the global population safe and healthy. The Summit also highlighted how important a safe, effective and equitably accessible vaccine will be in controlling COVID-19.

The Global Vaccine Summit marks 20 years since Gavi was founded. Dr Tedros added: “We join Gavi in celebrating the collective success of this great Alliance. These pledges are not just an investment in the Alliance of which we are a very proud partner; they are an advance on our shared vision of a healthier, safer and fairer world.”

Back at home,India has pledged 15 million dollars to Gavi, the international vaccine alliance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced this while addressing the virtual Global Vaccine Summit hosted by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday. Over 50 countries - business leaders, UN agencies, civil society, government Ministers, and Heads of State participated in the Summit.

In his address, Prime Minister Modi said India stands in solidarity with the world in these challenging times. He said, India’s civilization teaches that the world is one family and that during this pandemic, the country had tried to live up to this teaching. He said India shared the country’s available stocks of medicines with over 120 countries. He said this was done by forging a common response strategy in its immediate neighborhood and by providing specific support to countries that sought it, while also protecting India’s own vast population.

He said the COVID19 pandemic, in some ways, has exposed the limitations of global cooperation and that for the first time in recent history, the human kind faces a clear common enemy.

The Prime Minister said that one of the first programmes launched by his government was Mission Indradhanush, which aims to ensure full vaccination of the country’s children and pregnant women.

He said in order to expand protection, India has added six new vaccines to its National Immunization Programme.

The Prime Minister has elaborated that India had digitized its entire vaccine supply line and developed an electronic vaccine intelligence network to monitor the integrity of its cold chain.

The Prime Minister said India is also the world’s foremost producer of vaccines and that it is fortunate to contribute to the immunization of about 60 percent of the world’s children. He also said India recognizes and values the work of GAVI.

Prime Minister said India’s support to GAVI is not only financial but that India’s huge demand also brings down the Global price of vaccines for all, saving almost 400 Million Dollars for GAVI over the past five years.