The statement was made during the COVAX Advance Market Commitment Engagement Group (AMC EG) meeting held virtually on Wednesday (June 8) and chaired by Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi, Canada's Minister of International Development, and the Ethiopian minister of health.
On the occasion, as conveyed in a written statement by the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Thursday, Foreign Minister Marsudi stated that the world was currently witnessing a positive trend related to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the number of new cases and fatalities continuing to decline.
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This achievement cannot be separated from the role of COVAX as well as proof that multilateralism can produce results.
However, Marsudi emphasized that the task of COVAX was far from complete, and the COVID-19 pandemic was still not over.
Vaccination gaps persist despite the global vaccine supply being adequate.
“The vaccine gap still exists. Many high-risk people in low-income countries have not been vaccinated. The number of available vaccine doses fail to match the absorption rate," Marsudi pointed out.
Quoting President Joko Widodo's statement at the COVAX AMC Summit held in April 2022, Marsudi reiterated the importance of immediately pushing to turn vaccines into vaccinations.
To this end, the minister said, a renewed global focus was required for two important aspects: prioritizing funding for vaccination efforts and integrating COVID-19 vaccination into other health interventions.
Furthermore, Marsudi emphasized that COVAX has currently become an inseparable part of the global health architecture.
The existence of COVAX is important for two reasons: the need to maintain multi-stakeholder solidarity at the global level and the requirement to preserve equal access to health solutions, especially for developing countries.
"This is the fundamental reason why COVAX must continue to exist after 2022 and after the pandemic," the minister stressed.
COVAX AMC is a global mechanism that aims to distribute vaccines free of charge to its member countries: 92 lower-middle-income and low-income nations.
As of April 3, 2022, Indonesia had received 130,662,975 doses of vaccine through the AMC COVAX mechanism and bilateral dose-sharing schemes.
Overall, COVAX has, so far, delivered 1.5 billion doses of the vaccine to 144 countries, of which 88 percent were delivered to 87 AMC countries.
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Translator: Yashinta D, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2022
