The World Health Organization (WHO) asked the international community to donate “immediately” 10 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to help 20 countries that do not have them, given the spike in infections in the world.
The international Covax system, which the WHO runs together with other partners, “immediately needs 10 million doses” so that “those 20 countries can start vaccinating their health workers and older people in the next two weeks,” said the director. General of that UN agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at a press conference.
“Many countries can give doses by altering their vaccination plans a little,” he said. “Ten million doses is not a lot and it is far from being enough, but it is a start. We will need hundreds of millions of additional doses in the coming months, “he added.
At the beginning of the year, the head of the WHO launched a global challenge for the vaccination of health personnel and the elderly to start in all countries in the first 100 days of 2021.
So far, 177 countries and territories have been able to start vaccination, according to Tedros, especially thanks to Covax, which has distributed more than 32 million vaccines in 61 countries.
“There are only 15 days left before the 100th day of the year, and 36 countries are still waiting for vaccines to start vaccinating health workers and the elderly,” he said.
Of those 36 countries, 16 should receive their first doses within the next 15 days. But another 20 countries “wait” for vaccines. “Covax is willing to supply them, but we can’t deliver the vaccines that we don’t have,” Tedros said.
“Bilateral agreements, export bans, nationalism and diplomacy on vaccines caused distortions in the market, with clear inequalities between supply and demand,” he added.
The international Covax system seeks to deliver doses to 20% of the population of about 200 countries and territories this year, and has a funding mechanism to help 92 disadvantaged countries.
Bruce Aylward, advisor to the CEO, asked the many countries that asked for dose amounts greater than their needs to share them, and also called on the international community to financially support Covax. “We are in dire need of $ 2.3 billion,” he said.
The concern of the WHO increases because the contagion accelerated this week in almost all regions of the world.
“We are not done with the pandemic. We are still in the acute phase of the pandemic, ”insisted Maria Van Kerkhove, technical manager at the WHO for the fight against Covid-19.
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