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 India's decision this week to resume vaccine exports was "a very
important part of the solution," but major economies also had to
ratchet up vaccine deliveries to honor their pledges, Gita Gopinath
told Reuters in an interview.
The pandemic has killed nearly 5 million people across the world,
and the IMF has warned that highly unequal health prospects - with
just 2% of people in low-income countries vaccinated to date - poses
"severe risks".
Gopinath said Group of Seven rich countries had delivered only 14%
of the total vaccine doses they had promised, but increasing that to
50% would provide sufficient doses to reach the global target for
2021.
"It's not enough to make announcements and pledges. You have to come
through on it," she said, adding that one of the biggest
accomplishments of the COVID-19 summit being organized by U.S.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday would be a more systematic way of
holding countries accountable.
"I think (ending the pandemic) is still a solvable problem and that
it can be done, as long as you can get the countries and the vaccine
manufacturers to come together and deliver on these targets," she
said.
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 It was critical to allocate
adequate supplies of vaccines, especially to
African countries with big deficits, by year's
end, even if some shots did not get into
people's arms until early next year, she said.
Gopinath and IMF staff economist Ruchir Agarwal in May released a
$50 billion proposal
https://www.reuters.com/business/
healthcare-pharmaceuticals/imf-says-ending-covid-19-pandemic-possible-cost-some-50-billion-2021-05-21
that built on efforts by the United Nations, World Health
Organization and other groups to end the COVID-19 pandemic by
vaccinating at least 40% of the population in all countries by the
end of 2021.
The plan, subsequently endorsed by the WHO, World Trade Organization
and World Bank, called for boosting that vaccination rate to at
least 60% by the first half of 2022.
Biden has challenged world leaders to boost that target to 70% by
the time of next year's United Nations General Assembly.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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