UNICEF asks G7 nations to donate COVID vax to avoid wastage of jabs

New Delhi: UNICEF suggests UK and other G-7 counties to donate their leftover vaccine doses to poorer countries in need of jabs to avoid wastage, as reported by BBC.

UNICEF's vaccine lead Lily Caprani told BBC Newsnight that countries needed to vaccinate their own populations at the same time as the rest of the world.

"At some point, no doubt, we will need to vaccinate under-18s. But the priority at this moment has to be making sure that all of the vulnerable and priority groups around the world get vaccines.

"So we're saying countries like the UK and the G7 need to donate their doses to those low income countries now, while still vaccinating their populations at home," Caprani added.

However, the UN organisation has warned against sending large amounts of leftover doses to poorer nations in one go. Instead, its suggested countries to provide steady supply of jabs throughout the year as the poor countries do not have resources to use them all at once, the BBC reported.

Meanwhile, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors Priyanka Chopra Jonas, David Beckham, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Whoopi Goldberg, Angelique Kidjo and Liam Neeson have joined an extraordinary call by 28 high-profile UNICEF Ambassadors and Supporters demanding that G7 leaders commit to donating doses of Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries now.

The letter urging the G7 leaders -- the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US -- to commit to sharing a minimum of 20 per cent of Covid-19 vaccine dose supply between June and August, got published on Tuesday ahead of the three-day G7 Leaders' Summit (June 11-13) in Cornwall, the UK.

"The world has spent a year and a half battling the Covid-19 pandemic, but the virus is still spreading in many countries and producing new variants with the potential to put us all back where we started," the letter read.