An appeal to the rich countries asking to pay and in fact urgently 16 billion dollars, which are still left to finance its program for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, addressed on Wednesday (9/2) the World Health Organisation (WHERE).
“Science has given us the tools to fight the pandemic. If they are shared around the world in solidarity, we can end this year the global health emergency coronavirus“, Said the general director of the WHO Tentros, Adanom Gebregesous, as broadcast by the Athens News Agency.
“If high-income countries pay their share of ACT-A funding, this program can help low- and middle-income countries overcome low COVID-19 vaccination rates with fewer tests. and the lack of medicines “, he underlines in his announcement.
SOS for vaccines, tests and treatments due to the Micron mutation
Its rapid spread variant strain Omicron of the new coronavirus makes even more urgent the fair distribution of tests, treatments and vaccines, stresses also the general director of the WHO Center Adanom Gebregesous.
ACT-A, the program to speed up access to tools against COVID-19, is a mechanism set up by major international health agencies, as well as the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Under the auspices of the WHO, it aims to speed up access to tools to combat COVID-19 in disadvantaged countries.
One of its aspects is the COVAX system, which was implemented at the beginning of the pandemic and before the arrival of effective vaccines, in an effort to guarantee fair access for the whole world to vaccines. That delivered his billionth vaccine dose in mid-January.
The operation of ACT-A was estimated to require about $ 23.4 billion for the period October 2021 – September 2022, but only $ 800 million has been raised so far.
The program is therefore asking for $ 16 billion from rich countries “to fill the immediate funding gap”, while the rest is expected to come from self-financing of middle-income countries.
Six countries – Canada, Germany, Kuwait, Norway, Saudi Arabia and Sweden – have reached or exceeded a fair level of funding.
Only 0.4% of the world’s 4.7 billion new coronavirus diagnostic tests have been used in disadvantaged countries, where 10% of the population has also received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Inequality of access to new coronavirus vaccines, tests and treatments only prolongs the pandemic, said South African President Cyril Ramafoza, who is co-chair of the ACT-A facilitation board.
“I urge other leaders to increase their solidarity, to take their share of the responsibility and to help save our lives from the virus,” he said.
Ramafoza and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gar Stere, the other co-president, wrote letters to 55 high- and middle-income countries, especially the former, to encourage them to pay their dues.
Source: News Beast
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