Italy will make available 45 million Coronavirus vaccine doses for countries in need and considers inoculation of the world's population to be crucial for global recovery.
"Italy will make 45 million vaccine doses available for countries that need them....without vaccination, the world will not recover fully - neither industrialised nor developing countries," said foreign minister Luigi Di Maio.
Di Maio was speaking on Friday to Italian public broadcaster Rai's TG2 news bulletin from the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
"Clearly, the UN needs to coordinate vaccinations," Di Maio stated.
Over six billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, almost 80% of these in high- and upper-middle-income countries. Only 0.5 percent of shots have been administered in low-income countries, according to data compiled from government sources by Oxford University.
Vaccine doses remain relatively scarce globally, with demand still forecast to outstrip supply through the end of 2021.
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