Friday, leaders of the G7 agreed to "intensify cooperation" in response to the COVID pandemic and increase financial pledges to launch vaccines in the world's poorest countries to 7.5 billion dollars.

"Today, with the increase in financial pledges of more than four billion dollars to ACT-A (Initiative to Accelerate Access to Anti-Covid Tools) and COVAX, the total support from the G7 has become 7.5 billion dollars," read a joint statement issued by the group that includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.