Statement by President von der Leyen on vaccine sharing - Main contents
Today, let me give you a few figures on vaccine sharing.
The European Union is so far the biggest donor of COVID-19 vaccines in the world.
Our EU Member States have shared more than 350 million doses for donation to countries around the world.
The large majority, around 300 million doses, have been shared via COVAX.
COVAX is now transferring them to low and middle income countries.
And we are working hard with COVAX and vaccine manufacturers, with donors and recipient countries, to speed up the actual delivery of these doses.
In addition, our EU Member States have delivered over 45 million doses through bilateral donations - for instance to our neighbours in the Western Balkans.
So, altogether, around 350 million doses have been shared by Team Europe.
But more is needed.
At this point, 44% of the world population is vaccinated.
A large part of the doses necessary for these vaccinations were exported or shared by Europe.
And we will do more.
We will step up our effort to support Africa where vaccination is lower than in other parts of the world.
Our aim is to ensure that 70% of the world's population is vaccinated by the middle of next year.
Because we will only control this pandemic if we fight it in every corner of the world.
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