United States to Partner with Côte d’Ivoire to Boost COVID-19 Vaccination
Initiative for Global Vaccine Access (Global VAX) will provide additional resources to support national vaccination plan
Abidjan – March 1, 2022 – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide a surge of resources to Côte d’Ivoire through the Initiative for Global Vaccine Access, or Global VAX, a U.S. government effort to turn COVID-19 vaccines in vials into vaccinations in arms. As part of this effort, USAID plans to contribute an additional $17 million to Côte d’Ivoire.
This funding will support activities that may include bolstering cold chain supply and logistics, addressing vaccine confidence and demand, and increasing the accessibility of vaccination sites. Global VAX builds on $14.7 million that USAID has already provided in Côte d’Ivoire to respond to COVID-19, in addition to the over 6.6 million doses of vaccine that the United States has donated to Côte d’Ivoire.
Global VAX is a U.S. government effort to help meet the global goal to vaccinate 70 percent of the world’s population against COVID-19 by the end of 2022. Global VAX builds on President Biden’s commitment to donate more than 1.2 billion vaccine doses around the world by the end of 2022. To date, the United States has already committed $1.7 billion to support access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.
The latest Ivoirian COVID-19 epidemiological report shows that as of February 22, over 10 million people (46 percent) of the national target for 2021 have received at least one vaccine dose including nearly 4 million people (27 percent) who have been fully vaccinated.
“Côte d’Ivoire has impressively demonstrated its capacity to manage COVID-19 cases and scale up vaccinations. The United States is proud to collaborate with Côte d’Ivoire to continue to scale up vaccination services to protect the health of Ivoirians. A population in good health is a population that can contribute to Côte d’Ivoire’s economic promise,” declared Ambassador Richard Bell. “As we are beginning to emerge from the Omicron variant that has affected every country around the globe, we are reminded that none of us is safe until we are all safe,” he added. “We encourage everyone eligible to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19.”