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LONDON — “Vaccine ceasefires” should be declared in conflict zones to enable health care workers to inoculate local populations against the coronavirus, U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will urge the United Nations Security Council.
The U.K. is prioritizing global access to vaccines while it holds the rotating presidency of the council this month. Raab, who is chairing a meeting Wednesday, will urge fellow members to agree a resolution backing negotiated armistices to support vaccine rollout alongside protection for health care workers trying to reach vulnerable people.
According to the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, more than 160 million people are in danger of being missed by coronavirus vaccination programs because of regional instability and armed conflict, in countries including Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.
Raab is expected to make the case that allowing the virus to continue to spread out of control anywhere in the world will increase the risk of dangerous new variants emerging. British officials will cite the April 2001 ceasefire between warring factions in Afghanistan, which allowed U.N. polio vaccination teams to reach people, as an example of where such measures have been successfully brokered in the past.
As part of a wider diplomatic push, Raab will also urge security council members to work together to improve access to vaccines for the world’s poorest countries, while highlighting the U.K.’s own £548 million contribution to the World Health Organization-backed COVAX program that aims to distribute vaccines equitably.
“Global vaccination coverage is essential to beating coronavirus,” Raab said in a statement ahead of the meeting. “That is why the U.K. is calling for a vaccination ceasefire to allow COVID-19 vaccines to reach people living in conflict zones and for a greater global team effort to deliver equitable access. We have a moral duty to act, and a strategic necessity to come together to defeat this virus.”
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