Spain Will Donate 30 Million Vaccines Against the Coronavirus to Developing Countries

Spain will donate a total of 30 million vaccines against coronavirus covid-19, said this Wednesday the president of the Spanish government Pedro Sanchez, in New York, where he participated in the United Nations General Assembly.

“Instead of the 22.5 million to which we had committed, we will donate 30 million, and that figure will continue to increase as far as we can.”, He announced in the multilateral forum.

Half will go to Latin America and the Caribbean “because in times of difficulty like this, Spain must be on the side of nations with which we share so much,” he said.

It will also allocate another 7.5 million to Sub-Saharan Africa and the countries of the Southern Neighborhood of the European Union.

On SpainHe said, more than 75% of the population has already received the complete guideline, a figure that “contrasts bitterly” with that of other nations where the percentage of protection barely reaches 1%, such as Afghanistan.

“No one will be safe until we are all safe”, warned.

The Spanish president had to reduce his presence in New York from four to one day due to the eruption of a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma. Tonight he returns to accompany King Felipe this Thursday on his visit to said island.

Pedro Sanchez He took advantage of the UN rostrum to make other announcements.

His government will contribute 2 million euros to UNITAID, responsible for the diagnostic pillar within the ACTAccelerator, which will be added to the 175 million euros that Spain has already dedicated to the development and production of vaccines between 2020 and 2021 and to the diagnostic pillar through of the Global Fund.

He also reiterated his call for “a temporary exemption from patents on vaccines” and the elimination of obstacles along the value chain.

The fight against climate change, “the great crisis of our era”, was another of the axes of his speech. In this sense, it announced the contribution of 30 million euros to the Adaptation Fund in 2022 that helps developing countries to adopt measures to curb the rise in temperature.

In addition to his government’s commitment to multilateralism, he stressed the importance of democracies being robust and having strong states to deal with all kinds of emergencies, such as the global health crisis that was generated with the coronavirus or the climate crisis.

In New York he also met with the NATO secretary general, with whom he advocated the restoration of trust between allies after the disagreement caused by the so-called submarine crisis.

This crisis erupted after an agreement signed between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia that meant the loss for France of a multimillion dollar contract signed with Canberra, which decided to buy the submarines from the United States.