The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday said it approved 18.9 million U.S. dollars in grants to help four developing member countries in the Pacific in rolling out safe and effective vaccines against the COVID-19.
The Manila-based bank said the grants to Samoa (8 million U.S. dollars), Tonga (5.5 million U.S. dollars), Tuvalu (1.5 million U.S. dollars), and Vanuatu (3.9 million U.S. dollars) will support their COVID-19 vaccination programs for a combined population of almost 600,000 people.
"These countries have incurred considerable costs in preventing COVID-19 transmission, and their health systems have been put under extreme pressure," ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said in a statement.
"These grants will provide a platform to introduce safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in these countries, strengthen health systems to receive and administer the vaccines, and raise community awareness about vaccination timetables," he added.
As of March 2021, the ADB had committed more than 750 million U.S. dollars, including co-financing and technical assistance, to support Pacific countries' response to the pandemic.
According to the World Health Organization, Vanuatu has three confirmed COVID-19 cases while Samoa has one. Tuvalu and Tonga have no cases.
