G-7 leaders to commit to sharing 1 billion vaccines to the world

The leaders of the G-7 countries have committed on Thursday to sharing one billion coronavirus vaccine shots with the rest of the world.

The initiative was announced by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson a day before the G-7 summit was set to begin, The Associated Press reported.

The countries that make up the G-7 include the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Germany, Italy and Canada.

The U.S. will be supplying half of the one billion shots the group has committed, in a move that was announced on Wednesday.

There will be a total of 500 million Pfizer doses being sent to almost 100 other countries between 2021 and 2022 by the U.S.

“I think the European Union needs to have at least the same level of ambition as the United States,”  French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday.

“It’s almost more important to say how many (doses) we deliver the next month than making promises to be fulfilled in 18 months from now,” he added.

France’s plan currently only spans to the end of the year with the country committing 30 million doses to go to other countries by the end of 2021.

The U.K. has said it will share 5 million doses in the next couple of weeks.  

The news comes as the coronavirus has already killed more people in 2021 than it has in 2020, despite many rich countries reopening many activities in their countries and widespread vaccine availability in wealthier countries. 

Poorer countries have been getting hit by spikes in COVID-19 cases while having little access to vaccines they need to control the pandemic.