Canada pledges $380 million in COVID-19 aid for low, middle-income countries

Toronto, Dec 15: Canada will spend $380 million to support COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines in low- and middle-income countries, including antibody treatments, International Aid Minister Karina Gould said in a statement on Monday.

The funds will make it possible for the United Nations children's agency UNICEF buy up to 3 million courses of antibody treatments, pending approval.

Two such treatments have been authorized for emergency use in the United States, one from Eli Lilly and AbCellera and another from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

The announcement includes C$100 million for the WHO, C$45 million for the Pan-American Health Organization and C$75 million to the GAVI vaccine group, partly to fund "a mechanism to equitably reallocate vaccine doses."

"This virus will not be fully eradicated until it's eradicated everywhere," the government said in the statement.

Funds will go to the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, an initiative that was launched by the World Health Organization and its partners, as well as to other global health organizations.

Canada is preparing to administer its first doses of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine.

The funds should be allocated within weeks, a spokesman for Gould said.