Coronavirus: Vaccination

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office written question – answered at on 7 February 2022.

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Photo of Alex Norris Alex Norris Shadow Minister (Levelling Up, Housing, Communities and Local Government)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to close the global covid-19 vaccine gap; and what steps she is taking to help ensure access to covid-19 vaccines in Tanzania.

Photo of Vicky Ford Vicky Ford Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK is committed to help bring the acute phase of the pandemic to an end and strongly supports the COVAX Facility as a key multilateral mechanism to deliver this. The UK is one of the largest donors to COVAX's Advance Market Commitment (AMC), committing £548 million, and will donate 100 million vaccine doses by mid-2022. This support has helped COVAX deliver over 1 billion vaccines worldwide so far. There are many factors to increasing global COVID-19 vaccination coverage, including not only supply but health system capacity and community demand. UK and COVAX partners are working with countries to help health systems deliver vaccines. This includes engaging with communities and leaders to build trust, provide correct information, and encourage uptake.

To date, Tanzania has received around 8 million doses of vaccines from both bilateral donations and from the COVAX facility to which the UK is one of the largest contributors. Around 2 million people have been vaccinated so far. The UK government has supported Tanzania's efforts to increase vaccine uptake by providing technical assistance to the government, including to enable it to address myths and misconceptions about COVID 19 vaccines. We will continue to consider bilateral donations to developing countries as doses become available.

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