Billions More Needed For UN-backed Global Collaboration To End Pandemic

NEW YORK, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 29th Oct, 2021) A new strategy announced on Thursday by the World Health Organization (WHO) calls for $23.4 billion to combat inequities in accessing COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments, as cases of the disease mount globally for the first time in two months.

The funding for the Access to COVID Tools (ACT) Accelerator – the UN-backed global initiative to end the pandemic - is critical to prevent some five million additional potential deaths, as well as $5.3 trillion in global economic losses.

The strategic plan and budget for the mechanism, a partnership of leading global health agencies established last April, will help the most at-risk countries to secure and deploy these tools between now and September 2022.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said through its vaccine pillar, COVAX, the ACT Accelerator has so far delivered 425 million doses to 144 countries alone.

Nearly 130 million tests, as well as increased supply of oxygen, personal protective equipment (PPE) and treatments, have also been distributed.

"But the ACT Accelerator has so far been prevented from fulfilling its potential by severe supply and financing constraints," said Tedros, speaking during the regular press briefing from WHO headquarters in Geneva.

He warned that unless the pandemic is controlled everywhere, the virus will mutate and continue to circulate everywhere.

"The high transmissibility of the Delta variant has reinforced what we have been saying since we set up the ACT Accelerator: vaccines alone will not end the pandemic.

We need all tools – vaccines, tests, treatments, PPE and public health measures - to fight COVID-19 and save lives and livelihoods now."

The spike in COVID-19 cases globally is a reminder that the pandemic is far from over. Numbers are increasing for the first time in two months, largely due to an ongoing rise in Europe, which outweighs declines elsewhere.

Tedros said the pandemic persists mainly because inequitable access to tools persists. As of Thursday, there were 244.8 million confirmed cases worldwide, and 4.9 million deaths.

"If the 6.8 billion vaccine doses administered globally so far had been distributed equitably, we would have reached our 40 per cent target in every country by now," he told journalists.

Ahead of the G20 summit this weekend in Rome, Tedros issued an appeal to the world’s leading industrial nations, as they "have the ability to make the political and financial commitments that are needed to end this pandemic, and to prevent future crises."

He urged leaders to fully fund the ACT Accelerator and to support creation of legally-binding global treaty on pandemic preparedness and response. He further called for creation of a Health Threats Financing board, supported by a Financial Intermediary Fund, hosted by the World Bank.