Geneva, October 8 (BNA) The World Health Organization (WHO) today launched the strategy to achieve universal vaccination against the coronavirus by mid-2022 (the Strategy) to help end what has become a two-track pandemic: the poorest. Countries remain at risk while wealthier countries with higher vaccination rates enjoy much greater protection.
The World Health Organization set a target to vaccinate 10% of every country, economy and territory by the end of September, but by that date 56 countries had not been able to do so, and the vast majority of these countries were in Africa and the Middle East.
The new strategy outlines a plan to achieve the World Health Organization’s goals of vaccinating 40% of each country’s population by the end of this year and 70% by mid-2022.
“Science has played its part by providing powerful life-saving tools faster than any outbreak in history,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“But the concentration of those tools in the hands of a few countries and companies has led to a global catastrophe, with protecting the rich and the poor still vulnerable to a deadly virus. We can still achieve the goals for this year and next, but it will require a level of political commitment, action and cooperation beyond what we have seen so far. “.
“This is a costly, coordinated and credible pathway out of the COVID-19 pandemic for everyone, everywhere,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “Without a coordinated and equitable approach, the reduction of cases in any country will not continue over time. For everyone’s sake, we must urgently raise all countries to a high level of vaccination coverage.”
To achieve global vaccination targets, there must be a three-step approach to vaccination, with all older people, health workers, and at-risk groups of all ages, in each country first, followed by the full age group of adults in each country and finally expanded adolescent vaccination.
Vaccination of 70% of the world’s population requires at least 11 billion doses of vaccine. By the end of September, just over 6 billion doses had already been administered worldwide. With a global vaccine now producing nearly 1.5 billion doses per month, there is enough vaccine from a supply perspective to meet global vaccination targets provided there is a fair distribution of those doses.
Significant funding has already been invested to procure most required vaccine doses for low- and middle-income countries through COVAX, the African Vaccine Acquisition Fund (AVAT) and bilateral contracts.
Additional investment is needed to secure the remaining vaccine doses to these countries as well as investment to support in-country delivery.
The strategy identifies the priority actions required of the various actors to achieve the objectives. (Who is the).
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