TikTok, Bill Gates pledge $20 million to help Africa tackle COVID-19

 

The social media platform TikTok and the philanthropic Gates Foundation donated $10 million each on Wednesday to the vaccine alliance GAVI to help fund efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa.

GAVI said the funds would be used to distribute and deploy any new vaccines against COVID-19 once they are developed, trialled and licensed.

It would also help prevent “a potentially catastrophic impact on immunisation programmes across the developing world,” GAVI Chief Executive Seth Berkley said in a statement.

GAVI is a public-private partnership backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, UNICEF and others, which arranges bulk buys to reduce vaccine costs for poor countries.

GAVI said this month it planned to disburse $29 million to support health systems in 13 lower-income countries to fight COVID-19.

Read more via Reuters

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