France to share at least 30 million COVID vaccine doses by end of year: President Macron

France will share at least 30 million doses of vaccines by different manufacturers by the end of the year through the COVAX COVID-19 vaccines distribution mechanism, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday.

"France was the first to share its vaccines via the COVAX mechanism ... and in this context, I want to say very seriously now that France will share at least 30 million doses of different vaccines by the end of the year," Macron told the Global Health Summit.

"We must refrain from playing politics with our vaccines. I would like to be clear with you: no to cronyism, yes to vaccine multilaterialism," Macron said.

The French president's initiative was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who pledged to follow her colleague's example.

"I too would like to follow suit, following the French example, and say that we will make available by the end of the year another 30 million doses of vaccines," Merkel said, adding that this pandemic's grip on the world is still tight and the issue of new variants still needs to be addressed.

As the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines continues across the world, it has revealed stark inequality between the countries that can afford to purchase and administer the remedy and those lacking financial and infrastructure capacity to do so.

The COVAX facility has been established to even out the playing field by providing access to diagnostics, treatment and vaccines against the disease to developing countries. COVAX aims to ship close to 2 billion doses of vaccines by the end of 2021, in an unprecedented global effort to guarantee access to vaccines for all. (ANI/Sputnik)

( With inputs from ANI )