United Nations welcomes recent pledge of nearly $1 billion in donations aimed at facilitating access to life-saving testing tools, treatments and vaccines to end the COVID-19 epidemic
As the pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 1 million
people, governments, international organizations and the private sector have
made new commitments to support the accelerated plan to respond with
unprecedented scale, scope and speed through access to COVID-19 tools and
promote global solidarity Unanimously, end the pandemic.
COVAX pillar of the ACT
Overview of recent commitments:
United Kingdom-Commit to provide 571 million pounds ($732 million) for the COVAX pillar of the COVID-19 Tool (ACT) Acceleration Program, of which up to 500 million pounds ($641 million) will be used to support low- and middle-income countries.
This includes a matching pledge that for every
US$4 from other countries, the United Kingdom will donate £1, and a matching
donation of up to 250 million pounds (321 million US dollars).
Canada-Commitment to provide 440 million Canadian dollars
(332 million US dollars) for the COVAX pillar of the ACT acceleration plan, of
which 220 million Canadian dollars (166 million US dollars) will be used to
support low- and middle-income countries
Germany-Commit to provide 100 million euros (117 million US
dollars) for the COVAX pillar of the ACT acceleration program, all of which
will be used to support low- and middle-income countries
Sweden-pledged to provide US$10 million for the COVAX pillar
of the ACT acceleration program, all of which will be used to support low- and
middle-income countries.
World Bank-Commitment to provide 12 billion to Purchase COVID Vaccine
World Bank-Commitment to provide 12 billion US dollars to
support developing countries to purchase the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as
possible after the launch (subject to shareholder approval)
16 pharmaceutical companies and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation signed an agreement to collaborate on vaccine manufacturing and
expansion
Today governments, private sectors, civil society and
international organizations have demonstrated a great spirit of solidarity and
pledged to support the Acceleration Plan for Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT)
initiated by the World Health Organization and international partners. The
United Nations and its partners expressed this welcome.
This accelerated plan is the most comprehensive end-to-end
multilateral solution to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic in the world, and
today it received nearly $1 billion in new funding commitments.
Acceleration Plan for Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT)
The ACT acceleration plan was jointly initiated by the World Health Organization, the European Commission, France, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation five months ago. It now requires an additional $35 billion to produce 2 billion doses of vaccine and provide 245 million.
The goal of a
course of treatment and 500 million tests. These new pledges of donations are
encouraging and can be used to promote further funding so that the pioneering
work of the ACT Acceleration Program can be continued.
The most urgent thing is that the ACT acceleration plan
requires US$15 billion to support immediate capacity building for R&D,
manufacturing, procurement and delivery systems before the end of the year.
Urgently mobilize support for the ACT acceleration plan
Secretary-General António Guterres convened a high-level event during the 75th session of the UN General Assembly to urgently mobilize support for the ACT acceleration plan.
He praised "the extraordinary
efforts the international community has done in response to this unprecedented
human crisis." Efforts” and added that more efforts must be made to
further “deepen” the remarkable progress made so far.
"To work together to expand the coverage of testing and
treatment on a large scale, and to support the use of vaccines as a global
public product, a "people's vaccine" that is accessible and
affordable to everyone around the world. This is in the national and economic
interests of each country. ".
Mr. Guterres said: "The ACT acceleration plan, including
its COVAX mechanism, is a tool to help us achieve our goals." He
co-sponsored the event with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, South
African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize and World Health Organization
Director-General Dr. Tedros.
Unprecedented global cooperation for COVID Pandemic
The ACT Acceleration Program was just launched five months
ago. It is an unprecedented global collaboration of top international
organizations in the health field to jointly accelerate the development,
production and fair delivery of COVID-19 testing tools, therapeutic drugs and
vaccines.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: “We have a responsibility to ensure that everyone has access to vaccines, treatments and testing tools against COVID-19.
If we can prevent this pandemic from spreading
globally, we can protect the British people and make Human beings are on the
road to recovery. Cooperation through the ACT Acceleration Program is essential
to promote development, production and access in all countries."
The United Kingdom recently pledged to provide COVAX funds
The UK recently pledged to provide COVAX with up to 571 million pounds (about 732 million US dollars) of funds, of which up to 500 million pounds will be used to support the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization COVID-19 Vaccine Advance Market Commitment (COVAX AMC).
This is a
financing tool designed to incentivize vaccine manufacturers to produce
enough COVID-19 vaccine to ensure that developing countries can obtain it.
Today, the British Foreign Secretary called for more support,
promising that the 500 million pounds pledged will include a matching pledge,
that is, for every 4 US dollars from other countries, the UK will donate 1
pound (1.29 US dollars), and a matching donation of 250 million pounds at most
(About 321 million US dollars).
Germany, Canada and Sweden make new commitments of 100 million euros to COVID-19 Vaccination
Germany, Canada and Sweden also made new commitments of 100
million euros, 220 million Canadian dollars and 10 million US dollars to COVAX
AMC respectively. These are in line with the conditions of the matching pledge
made by the UK today.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tan Desai said: "Science is
providing us with solutions in the form of new detection tools, treatments, and
hopefully there are vaccines. However, without unity, science and solutions
will be ineffective." .
"I am grateful for the generous funding commitments made today, but there is still a huge funding gap to fill. Full funding of the ACT acceleration plan will help control the pandemic, restore confidence, and stimulate global recovery. Frankly speaking, this is not a financial challenge. This is a test of unity.
At this moment, we must abandon nationalism and unite
for the common destiny of mankind. In the end, the ACT acceleration plan will
not only provide vaccines, diagnostic tools and treatments, but also deliver
more important things. This is hope."
South Africa’s Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize said: “We must deal with this health crisis as a global challenge, unite and cooperate with each other to find global solutions. We must develop the key testing tools, therapies and therapies that everyone needs.
Vaccines, and ensure that they are
fairly distributed to those most in need, no matter where they live or whether
their country is rich or not." He added that a large part of the
population, especially the population of developing countries, "is still
vulnerable and marginalized during this pandemic."
Today’s event highlighted the substantial results of the ACT Acceleration Program since its inception, including: providing 120 million affordable and high-quality rapid tests for low- and middle-income countries.
Dexamethasone
Dexamethasone (the only trial of drugs that have a significant impact on mortality has made breakthroughs and has been quickly promoted. The COVAX mechanism was created, which is a global mechanism to ensure fair access to the final COVID-19 vaccine regardless of income status.
The mechanism now includes
168 economies and has the world's largest and most diverse vaccine portfolio.
Nine vaccine candidates are under evaluation, of which eight are currently in
clinical trials.
Another important support measure is that 16 pharmaceutical
companies and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have signed an agreement to
cooperate in vaccine production and expand production at an unprecedented rate
to ensure that more Widely provide and distribute approved vaccines as soon as
possible.
Pandemic has an amazing impetus for both selfishness and altruism
Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said: "Through studying the history of the pandemic, I found that the pandemic has an amazing impetus for both self-interest and altruism. A pandemic is rare.
A country’s instinct for self-help is closely coordinated
with its instinct to help others. Ensuring that poor countries can obtain
vaccines is in their own interests as well as the interests of others. The two
are completely consistent here."
"Some countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada recently, have set good examples for other wealthy countries. These countries have donated enough funds to COVAX, the vaccine pillar of the ACT acceleration plan, and it is likely that hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines can be purchased for poor countries.
But still More funds are needed, and I hope that
rich countries can continue to donate generously."
Pandemic Creating Corona virus
The World Bank announced a series of plans for a major
financial commitment this week to support developing countries to purchase the
COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible after the launch.
World Bank President David Malpass stated that once these
plans are approved by stakeholders, “up to US$12 billion in funding will change
the status quo, because once a safe and effective vaccine is available, people
can resume their lives with confidence. ".
Invest in global recovery
The investment demonstration of the ACT Acceleration Program illustrates the considerable economic benefits of collectively accelerating the development and deployment of tools to rapidly reduce the global risk of severe COVID-19.
Before the United Nations General Assembly in 2020, the ACT
Acceleration Program has raised $3 billion of its total funding needs of $38
billion. For more details, please refer to the investment demonstration of the
ACT acceleration plan.
The economic justification for investing in a method that can
accelerate the end of the COVID-19 crisis is obvious. As long as global flows
and trade resume, all funds provided for this initiative to help shorten the
duration of the crisis can be repaid within 36 hours.
Acceleration Plan for Acquiring COVID-19 Tools (ACT)
The Acceleration Plan for Acquiring COVID-19 Tools (ACT) is a proven and running global cooperation project aimed at accelerating the development, production and fair access to COVID-19 testing tools, therapeutic drugs and vaccines.
The plan was established in response to a call from the
leaders of the Group of Twenty in March, and was launched in April 2020 by the
WHO, the European Commission, France, and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation.
The ACT Acceleration Plan is not a decision-making body or a new organization, but is dedicated to speeding up cooperation efforts between existing organizations to end this pandemic.
This is a cooperation framework
that aims to unite the main actors to accelerate the development, fair
distribution and expansion of the delivery of testing tools, therapeutic drugs
and vaccines, with a view to ending the pandemic as soon as possible, thereby
protecting the health system and restoring social and economic operations as
soon as possible.
The plan draws on the experience of some of the world's leading health organizations. These organizations are responding to the world's most severe health challenges. Through joint efforts, they have been able to achieve new and more ambitious results on the COVID-19 issue.
The members of the
ACT Acceleration Program jointly pledge to ensure that everyone has access to
all the tools needed to defeat COVID-19 and work together to achieve this goal
in an unprecedented partnership.
The ACT acceleration plan includes four pillars: diagnostic tools,
treatment methods, vaccines, and strengthening the health system.
The diagnostic pillar is jointly led by the Global Fund and
the Foundation for Promoting Innovative Diagnostic Methods, focusing on
launching 2-3 high-quality rapid test tools to the market, training 10,000
health care professionals in 50 countries, and providing services by mid-2021
500 million people in low- and middle-income countries are tested.
The treatment pillar is led by the International Drug Procurement Mechanism and the Wellcome Trust.
Treatment can play a role in all stages of the COVID-19 disease, including preventing infection; suppressing symptoms and spreading infection to others; treating or preventing symptoms, saving the lives of critically ill patients; and speeding up recovery.
The goal
for the next 12 months is to develop, manufacture and distribute 245 million
treatment courses to help COVID-19 patients recover.
Conclusion
The vaccine pillar is led by the Epidemic Prevention
Innovation Alliance, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization and WHO,
and is now accelerating the pace to find effective vaccines for all countries.
At the same time, it is still supporting the building of manufacturing capacity
and purchasing supplies in advance so that 2 billion doses of vaccine can be
distributed fairly by the end of 2021.
The health system connectivity pillar is led by the World
Bank and the Global Fund, and efforts are being made to ensure that those in
need have access to these tools.
The acquisition and distribution work under the auspices of
the World Health Organization cuts across all these areas.
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