The COVID-19 vaccine race, including producing and buying vaccines, has intensified, making it increasingly important for the international community to make sure all countries have fair and equitable access to the vaccines once governments approve them for public use. China has signed an agreement with Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, officially joining COVAX, an international initiative for equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, and thus injected positive energy into global governance and strengthened multilateralism.

The novel coronavirus pandemic is still raging in many parts of the world. Worse, the pandemic has had spillover effects, leading to social unrest and governance crisis in some countries, and global recession, creating new challenges for the international community.

The world is working around the clock to develop COVID-19 vaccines. 172 countries and regions, and international organizations such as the WHO and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance promoted the COVAX initiative, which includes joint procurement and risk decentralization of different COVID-19 vaccines. The COVAX mechanism aims to provide at least 2 billion safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021, and countries that participate in COVAX will get timely access to the vaccines that are approved as safe and effective.

China has been committed to building a global community of health for all since the pandemic broke out and has actively supported international organizations including the WHO and GAVI. It is also contributing to four of the nine candidate vaccines that have entered phase-III clinical trials across the world. China was also the first country to say that its vaccines will be made global public goods, as President Xi Jinping declared while addressing the 73rd World Health Assembly on May 18.

The COVAX initiative is an ambitious multilateral arrangement to help the world defeat the novel coronavirus. For years now, China has been shouldering its international responsibilities as a major country, and has taken an important step to help build a global community of health for all by declaring that its vaccines will be treated as global public goods.

From China Daily