Question reference: S6W-00700
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 14 June 2021
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Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 June 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the COVID-19 vaccines that it has been allocated has been subsequently offered by it to (a) Bangladesh and (b) other countries with low vaccination rates.
Answer
The UK Government announced that the UK would participate in the COVAX initiative in September 2020.
COVAX is a World Health Organisation (WHO) initiative to ensure that poorer countries have equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines.
The initiative is designed to support the research, development and manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines and negotiate their pricing.
On 8 June, UNICEF sent an open letter to G7 countries, urging them to donate 20% of their vaccines doses to COVAX by August.
To date the UK has committed over £500m to the Covax initiative, the UK has also announced it will donate at least 100 million surplus coronavirus vaccine doses within the next year, including 5 million beginning in the coming weeks.
In September 2020, the Scottish Government began a review of its approach to international development, and in December marked £2M of its International Development Fund (IDF) to support partner countries’ COVID-19 responses.