Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine have been distributed to low-income countries; and how that figure compares to the number of doses distributed by that company globally.
The UK is proud to be playing a leading role in the global effort to develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines and our investment in the research and development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been a key contribution to this effort. Through voluntary licensing and manufacturing partnerships across the world, more than half a billion doses of the vaccine have so far been distributed worldwide at non-profit prices, with two-thirds of these going to lower- and middle- income countries. This includes a significant portion of COVAX's supply, which has so far shipped over 109 million COVID-19 vaccines to 135 participants worldwide. We encourage others to follow this lead and are working to facilitate more partnerships like this.