By Haruna Gimba
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said there are ‘three major threats’ to the United Nations led international equitable vaccine initiative, COVAX.
The UN health agency said despite some positive news that both COVID-19 deaths and new cases have recently been on the wane, the threats requires urgent attention.
Briefing United Nations member states, WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, drew attention to a $27 billion financing gap in the ACT Accelerator, which supports the development and equitable distribution of coronavirus tests, treatments and vaccines globally.
“The longer this gap goes unmet, the harder it becomes to understand why, given this is a tiny fraction of the trillions of dollars that have been mobilized for stimulus packages in G20 countries,” he said.
Secondly, noting some bilateral deals, he called on all States “to respect COVAX contracts and not compete with them.”
Thirdly, Tedros underscored the need for “an urgent scale-up in manufacturing to increase the volume of vaccines” with “innovative partnerships” to include tech transfer, licensing and “other mechanisms to address production bottlenecks.”
COVID swells in Africa
Meanwhile, as Africa marks one year since its first COVID-19 case, on February 14, WHO revealed that last month, the continent had witnessed a 40 per cent surge in COVID fatalities, pushing the death toll there towards 100, 000.
WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said the increasing deaths from COVID-19 being witness in the country is tragic, “but are also disturbing warning signs that health workers and health systems in Africa are dangerously overstretched.”
This mortality spike comes as Africa’s second wave which began in October, seems to have peaked on January 6, having spread significantly faster and proven far more lethal.
WHO maintained that second wave cases surged far beyond the peak experienced in the first wave and health facilities have become overwhelmed.
WHO says there is an “urgent need” for a coordinated approach to variant surveillance and more evaluation to help decipher the potential impact they may have on vaccine effectiveness.
“The pandemic is far from over, and vaccines are just one crucial tool in our fight against the virus. We must boost investments and support for our health workers and health systems by sticking to mask wearing, regular hand cleaning and safe social distancing,” Dr Moeti said.
