" Act together ".
The World Health Organization (OMnothingS) on Wednesday urged rich countries to urgently pay 16 billion dollars (14 billion euros) which are still missing to finance its plan to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Science has given us the tools" to fight the pandemic, "if shared globally in solidarity, we can end Covid-19 as a global health emergency this year," said the chief executive. of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a press release from the solidarity campaign "Acting together".
“If high-income countries pay their fair share” of ACT-A funding, this program “can help low- and middle-income countries overcome low Covid-19 vaccination rates, poor testing and drug shortages,” he said in a statement.
The meteoric spread of the Omicron variant makes the equitable distribution of tests, treatments and vaccines all the more urgent, he insisted.
Make access to tools to fight against Covid-19 faster
The ACT-A accelerator, the English acronym for Access to tools against Covid, is a device created by major international health agencies but also the World Bank or the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
Led by the WHO, it is responsible for speeding up access to tools to fight Covid-19 in disadvantaged countries.
Only 0.4% of the 4.7 billion Covid-19 screening tests carried out worldwide have been used in disadvantaged countries, where 10% of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine.
One of the components of the ACT-A system is the Covax system, set up at the start of the pandemic and before the arrival of effective vaccines, to try to guarantee equitable access for the whole world to vaccines.
He delivered his billionth dose of vaccine in mid-January, twice less than expected.
Read alsoA billion doses of vaccine distributed, but... Why Covax leaves a bitter taste in poor countries
Running ACT-A required some $23.4 billion over the October 2021 – September 2022 period, but only $800 million has been raised so far.
The program therefore calls for 16 billion dollars from rich countries “to fill the immediate financing gap”, with the rest to be self-financed by middle-income countries.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who chairs the ACT-A Facilitation Board, have written to 55 high- and middle-income countries, particularly in the upper bracket, encouraging them to donate share.
Six countries - Canada, Germany, Kuwait, Norway, Saudi Arabia and Sweden - have reached or exceeded a level of fair funding.
Unequal access to anti-Covid vaccines, tests and treatments only prolongs the pandemic, underlined Cyril Ramaphosa.
“I appeal to other leaders to increase solidarity, do their part and help save our lives in the face of the virus,” he said.