The World Health Organization said it still needs about $17 billion to fund the fight against the pandemic—not only to secure vaccines, but also to provide protective equipment, diagnostic tests, and the few available treatments.
The Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT Accelerator), which is responsible for accelerating access to COVID-19 tools in low-income countries, has secured pledges of $17.7 billion from donors for the 2020–2021 period. However, it still falls short of the $16.8 billion it needs by the end of 2021, of which just over $8 billion is needed urgently.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus used a meeting of member states on the “ACT Accelerator” mechanism to assess the program’s status and speak about a pandemic that is moving “at two speeds” and remains “in a very dangerous phase.” He said, “The countries that are in the process of lifting lockdowns in their communities are those that have largely secured supplies of emergency materials, such as personal protective equipment, diagnostic tests, oxygen, and especially vaccines.”
He added, “Meanwhile, countries that lack adequate access to these products are facing overwhelmed hospitals and surges in deaths. The situation is being exacerbated by virus variants.”
The COVAX program is a component of the ACT Accelerator and was launched at the start of the pandemic, before effective vaccines were approved, in an effort to ensure equitable access to vaccines for all countries around the world.
Instead, however, wealthy countries rushed to secure the most effective vaccines to immunize the majority of their populations, thereby depriving poor countries, vulnerable groups, and healthcare workers of access to vaccines.
According to figures compiled by Agence France-Presse, 3.25 billion vaccine doses had been administered as of July 6 in 216 countries and territories.
In high-income countries, 84 doses have been administered per 100 people. In the 29 poorest countries, that figure drops to one dose per 100 people.
As of Tuesday, July 6, the COVAX program had distributed 100 million doses to 135 countries and territories. However, this figure is far below the 300 or 400 million doses that were planned for distribution before India banned exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced at the Serum Institute of India, which supplied the vast majority of the doses.
As a result, many countries are unable to administer the second dose to protect those who received the first, which in turn undermines the credibility of vaccination campaigns. Tedros urges that at least 10% of the total population in each country be vaccinated by September and 40% by the end of the year.
Ibrahim Al-Sabbar
