Singapore will contribute US$5 million ($6.67 million) to the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Advance Market Commitment (AMC) mechanism, which will help support 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries’ access to Covid-19 vaccines through the COVAX Facility.
Eligible countries include Asean members Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam.
This is part of the Singapore government's consistent support for vaccine multilateralism, and the fair and equitable access and allocation of vaccines, says the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and Ministry of Health (MOH) in a joint press statement on Dec 4.
"Singapore will continue to work closely with our international partners, in particular, the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to advance vaccine multilateralism and forge a global response to this pandemic," says MFA.
The COVAX Facility is a global risk-sharing mechanism which seeks to procure, equitably allocate and deliver 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.
As of Nov 25, Singapore is one of 97 self-financing participants in the Facility. The Facility’s implementing partners are the World Health Organisation, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Singapore and Switzerland co-chair the Friends of the COVAX Facility to support the work of this Facility.
See: Here's where Pfizer's vaccine stands in Asia
The list of 92 AMC-eligible economies includes all economies with Gross National Income (GNI) per capita under US$4,000 plus other World Bank International Development Association (IDA)-eligible economies.
According to public–private global health partnership Gavi, the funding mechanism requires seed funding of US$2 billion before the end of the year to secure and guarantee doses for the 92 AMC-eligible economies. A minimum of an additional US$3.4 billion is estimated to be required to procure around one billion doses by the end of 2021.
Once a vaccine has been approved by regulatory agencies and/or prequalified by the WHO, the COVAX Facility will then purchase these vaccines with a goal to try and initially provide doses for an average of 20% of each country’s population, focusing on health care workers and the most vulnerable groups.
Further doses will be made available based on a number of factors, including financing, country need, vulnerability and potential threat, and a buffer of doses will also be maintained for emergency and humanitarian use.
