China Donates $100 Million to WHO-Led Vaccine Supply Program Covax

What’s new: China will donate $100 million to Covax, a program led by the World Health Organization (WHO) that aims to ensure vaccine supply to poorer nations, and will provide other countries with 2 billion doses of its Covid-19 vaccines this year, President Xi Jinping announced Thursday.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered President Xi’s written message to the first meeting of an international Covid-19 vaccine cooperation forum jointly held by 23 countries via video-link, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

Argentina, Brazil and Chile were among the countries that attended the forum, according to a Chinese government statement (link in Chinese).

What’s more: In July, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a press conference that China had provided more than 600 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to other countries, along with billions of masks, protective suits and test kits, national broadcaster CCTV reported.

In April last year, another foreign ministry spokesperson said China would donate an additional $30 million (link in Chinese) to the WHO on top of a $20 million donation made a month earlier.

The background: Xi’s message was delivered as the delta variant of Covid-19, first identified in India, has spread to more than 130 countries.

China is battling its worst Covid-19 outbreak in months, driven by the highly transmissible delta variant. So far, the outbreak has spread to at least 17 provincial-level regions, including Beijing and Shanghai, with hundreds infected.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use.

Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Heather Mowbray (heathermowbray@caixin.com)

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