UK joins global drive to fight against Covid-19

London: The UK has joined a global campaign, termed ‘Global Goal Unite Summit’, to underline the importance of working together with countries across the globe to ensure testing, treatments and vaccines to fight the coronavirus pandemic are available to all.

The UK is playing a major role in the international response to the pandemic as a force for good; scientists at Oxford University and Imperial College London are leading efforts to develop a working vaccine.

The government-funded Oxford University ‘UK RECOVERY’ trial is the world’s first clinical trial to show a coronavirus treatment proven to reduce the risk of death. On 16 June, the British government also authorised the use of Dexamethasone (an anti-inflammatory drug) by the NHS.

Addressing a global audience during the virtual pledging event, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, “In great swathes of the world, the disease is still accelerating and the race for a vaccine, for better treatments, for quick and reliable tests must go on. That’s what we’re doing here in the UK, where scientists have made the life-saving breakthrough on dexamethasone treatment, and where researchers at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London have vaccine candidates in advanced clinical trials.”

“If and when an effective vaccine is found, wherever it is found and whoever finds it, then we as world leaders have a moral duty to ensure that it is truly available to all,” he added.

The UK has already committed £764 million (USD964 million) of aid towards researching vaccines, tests and treatments and reinforcing global health systems.

On June 4, the UK hosted the Global Vaccine Summit, raising over £7 billion (USD 8.8 billion) to immunise 300 million children and support the global fight against coronavirus.

Source: ANI