The mechanism, “ACT Accelerator” in its original name, is a global alliance led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners for the global and equitable production of diagnostics, therapies and vaccines. The Covax network is the pillar designed to guarantee universal access to a vaccine against the disease.
In a statement, WHO said that 5.1 billion dollars (4.3 billion euros) are already committed after new contributions, including the Paris Peace Forum, whose second edition took place this week and which brought together heads of government and international organizations.
But he also says that for the initiative to be successful, additional funding will be needed.
WHO says the European Commission, France, Spain, South Korea and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have pledged $ 360 million (€ 304 million) to Covax, the pillar of the ACT Accelerator vaccines.
And he says, regarding the Paris Forum, that Emmanuel Macron, French President, Erna Solberg, Norwegian Prime Minister, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, and Melinda Gates, Co-President from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, discussed the need for multilateral action and the role of the ACT Accelerator “to end the acute phase of the pandemic as soon as possible”.
And that they warned that the global capacity to profoundly change the dynamics of the pandemic in the first half of 2021 is at risk if there are delays in urgent financing.
The WHO statement said that in addition to the additional US $ 4.2 billion (€ 3.5 billion) needed this year, an additional US $ 23.9 billion (€ 20.1 billion) will be needed in 2021. euros).
Recalling that since April the ACT Accelerator partnership “has supported the fastest, most coordinated and successful global effort in history to develop tools to fight a disease”, WHO says there are “significant” advances in research and development in ways to fight the disease and that the joint initiative is ready to ensure a way to attack the acute phase of the pandemic, developing tests, treatments and vaccines.
Through the ACT Accelerator, the WHO statement recalls, more than 50 diagnostic tests are being evaluated and rapid tests are being made available to poor countries, in addition to new treatments being evaluated. Through the Covax network, nine vaccines are being evaluated.
The necessary funding will also, says the WHO, increase the number and capacity of testing, accelerate the availability of the drug dexamethasone and oxygen, and launch vaccination on a large scale.
At the Peace Forum, quoted in the statement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the $ 28 billion needed (4.2 billion this year and 23.9 billion next year) is equivalent to that the transport sector and the global tourism sector lose in just two days of confinement.
The covid-19 pandemic caused at least 1,294,539 deaths in more than 52.7 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report made by the French agency AFP.
In Portugal, 3,250 people died from 204,664 confirmed cases of infection, according to the most recent bulletin from the Directorate-General for Health.
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