GENEVA – The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) global appeal for funding for coronavirus vaccines, diagnostics, equipment and treatments is still US$16.8 billion (RM69.8 billion) short – almost half its total needs, the organisation said yesterday.
The funding shortfall comes amid a widening gap between rich and poor nations in their ability to fight the pandemic, with access to vaccines woefully uneven.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, sounding an alarm on the gap in access to resources, warned that the pandemic remains in a “very dangerous phase”, more than 18 months in.
“The countries that are now opening up their societies are those that have largely controlled the supply of life-saving personal protective equipment, tests, oxygen and, especially, vaccines,” he said at a member state briefing on WHO’s Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) programme yesterday.
“Meanwhile, countries without access to sufficient supplies are facing waves of hospitalisations and deaths.”
ACT-A is an internationally-coordinated scheme aimed at developing, producing, procuring and distributing weapons to combat the pandemic.
It has received pledges of US$17.7 billion for 2020-21, but needs the remainder by the end of this year.
Who said some US$8.1 billion of the remaining US$16.8 billion is urgently needed.
Covax shortage
ACT-A gave birth to the Covax facility, designed to ensure poorer countries could access eventual vaccines, fearing a scramble for shots.
More than 3.25 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been injected in at least 216 territories around the world, according to an AFP count.
Across the countries defined as high income by the World Bank, 84 doses have been administered per 100 inhabitants.
But in the 29 lowest-income countries, just one dose has been administered per 100 inhabitants.
Covax yesterday hit the landmark of distributing 100 million vaccine doses, across 135 participating territories.
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said figure should have been between 300 and 400 million by this stage.
The scheme expects a surge of doses to become available between the end of September and January 2022, as more vaccines enter the programme, which has so far been almost entirely reliant on AstraZeneca shots.
Tedros wants 10% in every country vaccinated by September and 40% by the end of the year.
Some of the main vaccine producers sounded a positive note at the funding conference yesterday.
Pfizer chairman Albert Bourla said the firm’s goal is to provide two billion doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to low- and middle-income countries over the next 18 months.
Johnson and Johnson chief scientific officer Paul Stoffels said the first deliveries of J&J’s single-shot vaccine will reach Covax countries this week. – AFP, July 7, 2021
