Macron calls for more as G7 nations promise one billion vaccine doses by 2023

G7 leaders meeting in southern England are to agree to expand Covid vaccine manufacturing to provide at least one billion doses to the world through sharing schemes. French President Emmanuel Macron added a call for pharmaceutical companies to give 10 percent of their production to poorer countries.

French President Emmanuel Macron during a news conference ahead of the G7 Summit, at the Elysée Palace in Paris. AP - Pascal Rossignol

In advance of the G7 promise, EU members have agreed to donate at least 100 million doses by the end of 2021 – with France and Germany each committing to providing 30 million.

Macron issued his own call to the major pharmaceutical companies producing vaccines to donate 10 percent of their output to poor nations.

"Donations of doses by states have to be supplemented by donations of doses by pharmaceutical companies," Macron told a news conference, adding that states had helped fund vaccine research and that it was "legitimate" to ask for a contribution from the companies.

Macron also called for leaders of the G7 nations to back a goal of getting 60 percent of Africans vaccinated by the end of March 2022.

The target was set by the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. "I think it's a good objective and it is the one we will endorse at the G7," Macron told a news conference.

He said the figure was more ambitious than that provided for by the Covax jab scheme for poorer nations, which aims to immunise 20 percent of Africans by the end of 2021.

'Vaccine apartheid'

The United States has promised to donate 500 million jabs to 92 poor and lower-middle-income nations.

The UK, which is hosting the G7 gathering in south-west England, added it would donate at least 100 million surplus doses within the next year, including five million in the coming weeks.

The commitments follow growing calls for richer countries to step up their efforts to share Covid-19 shots with less developed nations, with charities warning the current situation is leading to "vaccine apartheid".

The aid organisation Oxfam said defeating the virus would take more than "charity", assessing that at the current rate of vaccinations, it would take 57 years for low-income countries to reach the same level of protection as G7 countries.

Britain, which has orders for more than 400 million doses, has faced criticism for failing to begin making donations to poorer countries.

On the eve of welcoming world leaders from the group of seven wealthy nations to their first summit in almost two years, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed that would soon change.

"As a result of the success of the UK's vaccine programme we are now in a position to share some of our surplus doses with those who need them," he said.

"At the G7 Summit I hope my fellow leaders will make similar pledges".

A Downing Street statement said: "At the Summit world leaders are expected to announce they will provide at least one billion coronavirus vaccine doses to the world...and set out a plan to expand vaccine manufacturing in order to achieve that goal."

European progress remains fragile

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has warned Europeans not to drop their guard because vaccination levels remain too low to stop another wave of infections.

Although parts of the rich world have scored successes against the disease, the gains are fragile and billions of mostly poor people remain unprotected.

Over 100 million people in the 27-nation European Union, or 22.6 percent of its population, have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

The contrast with developing nations was further evidenced Thursday when South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases announced that the country has now entered a third wave with more than 9,000 cases over the past 24 hours.

Also on Thursday, India reported a global record of more than 6,000 Covid-19 deaths in a single day after one state dramatically revised its data upwards, fuelling concerns that the official tally of almost 360,000 deaths, the world's third-highest toll, is woefully understated.

Euro football competition widens risk

In Europe, some lockdown restrictions have been eased of late notably ahead of the Euro football competition starting Friday.

But Hans Kluge, the WHO's regional director, said he feared complacency.

"Vaccination coverage is far from sufficient to protect the region from a resurgence," Kluge told reporters, warning against repeating the "mistake" of last summer by easing protective measures prematurely.