Johnson urges G7 leaders to finish COVID vaccination by end of ’22

London, Jun 6 (Sputnik) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to call on fellow G7 leaders to complete COVID-19 vaccination by the end of next year, Downing Street says.
“Vaccinating the world by the end of next year would be the single greatest feat in medical history,” the prime minister’s prepared remarks, released by his office on Saturday, say.
Johnson plans to call on the G7 leaders at next week’s summit in Cornwall to “rise to the greatest challenge of the post-war era” and lead the global recovery.
“I’m calling on my fellow G7 leaders to join us to end to this terrible pandemic and pledge we will never allow the devastation wreaked by coronavirus to happen again,” the prime minister’s prepared remarks say.
On Friday, after a two-day meeting of G7 health ministers at the University of Oxford, the UK government announced that the bloc had agreed to speed up cooperation on vaccine and therapeutic trials to tackle COVID-19 and future pandemics. They also agreed to work together on the mutual recognition of testing and vaccination certificates.
The meeting, which served as a preparatory event for the group’s summit to be held in Cornwall next week, fell short, however, of expectations that the seven richest countries would commit to donate more COVID-19 vaccine doses to developing countries.