Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to support South American countries to tackle their high rates of covid-19 infections.

As one of the largest donors to the international response to COVID-19, the UK has so far pledged up to £1.3 billion of UK aid to address the impacts of the pandemic, and to help end the pandemic as quickly as possible. With our strong support, COVAX has started to make progress on delivering vaccines across the world, and has delivered 77 million doses to 127 different economies to date. We believe that supporting COVAX is the best way to exit the acute phase of the pandemic.

In the Americas, the UK has co-hosted a series of regional workshops on COVAX and access to vaccines, bringing together government ministers and experts with the multilateral health system and development banks. Our embassies have regular engagement with their host countries, sharing lessons learned from the UK's experience. Much of our engagement in the coming months will be around economic recovery and building back greener and better. We work closely with partners throughout Latin America, including through high-level partnerships for sustainable growth with Mexico and Colombia.