Thank you for contacting me about Covid-19 vaccines for developing countries.
I am proud that the UK is at the forefront of, and one of the largest donors to, the international response to the pandemic. UK support extends to assisting the world's poorest nations receive the Covid-19 vaccines they need.
This is being done through our £548 million commitment to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) – the international initiative to support global equitable access to vaccines, which the UK helped establish in 2020. Our commitment is among the largest donations to the COVAX facility, and is helping to support the rollout of 1.8 billion Covid-19 vaccines doses by early 2022 for up to 92 developing countries.
This will be sufficient to vaccinate up to 30 per cent of recipient country populations, prioritising healthcare workers and then expanding to cover other priority groups. I am pleased that COVAX deliveries are now well underway. The first were received in Ghana in February 2021. As of 17 January, COVAX has provided over one billion doses to 144 participants. For up to date stats please see: https://www.gavi.org/covax-vaccine-roll-out.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the development of which was funded by the UK, is the world's most widely used vaccine. Thanks to AstraZeneca’s commitment to the UK Government to distribute the vaccine on a non-profit basis, 2.5 billion doses have been used in over 170 countries, two thirds of which are low- and middle-income countries.
COVAX, alongside its key delivery partner UNICEF, is supporting countries to develop their own national deployment plans. The UK's own network of health advisers in relevant AMC countries are also working to support host governments to receive and deliver vaccines.
The UK’s 2021 G7 Presidency championed equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics and the UK will share 100 million doses by June 2022 as part of a G7 commitment to provide an additional one billion doses. Of the vaccines the UK is sharing, 80 per cent will go to COVAX, which remains best-placed to allocate vaccines to where they will be most effective. The remaining 20 per cent are being shared bilaterally. On 30 December, the Government confirmed that it had met its target to donate 30 million vaccines by the end of 2021.
Millions more vaccines will be sent to other countries in 2022 in order to meet the 100 million target, including all 20 million Janssen vaccine doses previously ordered by the Government for domestic use.
This support is not coming at the expense of people in the UK. Indeed, the Government has already offered a vaccine to every adult in the UK ahead of schedule, with booster doses now being offered to all over-18s. The UK continues to proactively manage our vaccine supply and does not hold a stockpile of coronavirus vaccines. All procured, regulated doses are either used rapidly by our domestic programme or shared internationally with countries in need, meaning the domestic booster rollout is not impacted by donations.
I am assured that avoiding vaccine expiry and wastage is a core UK objective in determining when and where doses are shared. The UK is working with Gavi and the World Bank and key delivery partners (COVAX, WHO, UNICEF) to rectify bottlenecks and ensure vaccines are not wasted. As for all bilateral donations, the UK has sought assurances from recipients that they have the capacity to roll out the quantity of doses offered in line with their National Deployment and Vaccination Plans and ahead of the vaccine expiry date.
I hope this has provided reassurance that, when it comes to helping the world's poorest get vaccinated against Covid-19, the UK is playing our part.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Craig Whittaker MP
February 2022