The World Health Organisation says it aims to start deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines in February.
The Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, made this known on Monday in his opening remarks at the 148th session of the agency’s regional executive board.
“We’ve secured two billion doses from five producers, with options on more than one billion more doses, and we aim to start deliveries in February.
“COVAX is ready to deliver what it was created for,” the DG said in his speech.
COVAX is the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.
The ACT Accelerator is a ground-breaking global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.
COVAX is co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and WHO.
Its aim is to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.
In his Monday speech, which was delivered virtually from the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Dr. Ghebreyesus lamented that though vaccines bring hope to some, they become another brick in the wall of inequality between the world’s haves and have-nots.
“40 years ago, a new virus emerged and sparked a pandemic. Life-saving medicines were developed, but more than a decade passed before the world’s poor got access to them.
“12 years ago, a new virus emerged and sparked a pandemic. Life saving vaccines were developed, but by the time the world’s poor got access, the pandemic was over.
“One year ago, a new virus emerged and sparked a pandemic. Life-saving vaccines have been developed. What happens next is up to us
“We have an opportunity to beat history; to write a different story; to avoid the mistakes of the HIV and H1N1 pandemics,” the WHO chief stated.
