Daily Times

The Group of Seven wealthy democracies on Wednesday worked on plans to scale up global Covid-19 vaccinations, as calls mounted for a drastic increase in funding to help developing nations virtually shut out of early efforts.

Underscoring the challenges faced, the foreign minister of India — where Covid cases have soared in recent weeks — said he decided to participate in the London meeting virtually after potential exposure to the virus.

India was one of several nations invited by Britain for the first in-person G7 meeting since the pandemic began last year, in an effort to rally democracies in the face of a rising China and assertive Russia. Foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States are setting the agenda for a G7 leaders’ summit next month in Cornwall, southern England, which will mark US President Joe Biden’s international debut as president.

The G7 opened its final day with a session focused on open societies before taking up Covid-19 as well as the fight against climate change.

“A really valuable part of the G7 format is to think in the round — what do we need to do to help the most vulnerable countries around the world?” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told reporters. More than 1.2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered globally, but fewer than one percent in the least developed countries. With support from most wealthy nations, the UN-backed Covax programme is meant to share vaccines with the poorest nations.

But rich countries have also effectively elbowed out Covax in the early stages, striking their own deals with drug manufacturers.