Germany wants to provide an additional 383 million euros in the fight against the corona pandemic. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced this in a video message for the international donor conference Global Goal - Unite for our Future . "I firmly believe that vaccines, tests and medication must be available, affordable and accessible worldwide. We must pursue this goal together," said Merkel.

On May 4, the German Chancellor had already committed 525 million euros as a German contribution to the CEPI vaccine alliance, the GAVI global vaccine alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO) and various product development partnerships. With the additional EUR 383 million, Germany will support the Global Fund's crisis response mechanism (EUR 150 million) and Global Citizen's Resilience and Relief Response Network (EUR 233 million), the Federal Government said.

According to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU wants to contribute an additional 4.9 billion euros. Von der Leyen said the money should be used to support particularly vulnerable countries. Everyone in the world must have access to tests, treatments and vaccines - no matter where they live, where they come from or what they look like.

The event, which can be followed on the Internet, was organized by the EU Commission together with the non-governmental organization Global Citizen. The donation marathon, which started at the beginning of May with a first international donor conference, has so far brought in around EUR 9.8 billion. The main purpose of the money is to enable universal access to affordable coronavirus vaccines, treatments and tests.

When vaccines and effective medicines against the coronavirus will be ready is still unclear. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently called for higher investments. Around $ 31 billion (almost € 28 billion) would be needed by the end of 2021, experts from a fund announced under the WHO umbrella. Vaccine development alone would require $ 18 billion.