Finland donates 98,400 doses of vaccines to Côte d’Ivoire

The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated to developing countries by Finland reached to Abidjan, Côte d’ Ivoire on Thursday, said the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a press release.

Based on a joint decision by the EU, vaccines are distributed through COVAX, the global mechanism for equitable access to the vaccines.

Côte d’Ivoire will receive 98,400 doses of Astra Zeneca vaccines donated by Finland. From now on, Finland will donate vaccines to different parts of the world on a weekly basis.

During the autumn, Finland will donate about 3.65 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 to lower-income and middle-income countries.

In September, the Government decided to donate three million Astra Zeneca and 650,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses. The total value of these vaccines is EUR 10 million.

Finland, together with the other EU Member States and the European Commission, is committed to solidarity in action against the pandemic through the EU’s Team Europe package. The aim of the Team Europe collaboration is to donate 250 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines before the turn of the year to the COVAX vaccine delivery mechanism.

Finland emphasises that it is important to direct vaccines via the COVAX AMC (Advanced Market Commitment) mechanism to areas where they are needed most, such as Africa.

“Finland considers global vaccine solidarity very important. In order to help the poorest countries and to prevent the global spread of the disease, it is essential to support the availability of vaccines. This will also promote Finland’s health security and the recovery of the world economy,” said Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari.

Donations do not influence the availability of vaccines in Finland. In the early stages of the pandemic, Finland reserved COVID-19 vaccines from the EU’s package of vaccine procurements in excess of its national needs.