China offers a billion dollar loan to Latin America and the Caribbean to access its Covid-19 vaccine

“The Chinese Foreign Minister said that the vaccine developed in his country will be a public benefit of universal access, and that his country will designate a loan of $ 1 billion to support access [to the vaccine] for the nations of the region, “said the statement.

During a daily briefing on Thursday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador thanked China after the loan was announced.

“We are very grateful to China, to the Chinese government, the president, remember that I had the opportunity to speak to him on the phone, we asked him for support with medical equipment, there have been many aid flights from China.”

“There has always been a sufficient supply of equipment, medicine, and now there is this offer,” he added.

Wednesday’s virtual meeting was chaired by Mexico’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, and Wang Yi. Their counterparts from Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay also joined.

Before the meeting, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in his daily report that during the pandemic, “China and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, although separated from the oceans, have united against this common enemy and have carried out practical and effective cooperation for the benefit of all our people. “

He said the meeting “would consolidate the consensus between the two parties on the joint fight against the pandemic, consolidate mutual political trust, maintain multilateralism” and build a community with a shared future for the regions.

Latin America became the epicenter of the global pandemic in late May. A CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) last week found that Latin America and the Caribbean had suffered more deaths from coronavirus than the US and Canada, although the latter had still reported more deaths per capita. .

Brazil has the second highest number of cases worldwide, after the US, with more than 2.2 million people infected, according to JHU figures. Chinese biotech company Sinovac has started a Phase 3 vaccine trial in the country, along with another Phase 3 trial from Oxford University and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

Peru, Chile and Mexico are also among the top ten countries in confirmed cases, while the virus is also spreading in Venezuela, where concerns have been raised about the country’s paralyzed health system.

Government responses to the virus have radically differed in Latin America, however, the region’s informal workforce and high levels of inequality are among the factors driving the outbreak increase.

The coronavirus has also deepened the gap between the US and China, with the Trump administration repeatedly lashing out at China for its prompt response to the virus.

CNN’s Zamira Rahim and Emma Reynolds also contributed to this report.

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