Jakarta: United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has commended the African Union’s efforts through the covid-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Force to secure an additional 270 million vaccine doses for African countries, complementing the cooperation with the COVAX Facility of the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator.
"I have been consistently issuing a loud and strong call to the international community: we must ensure that vaccines are seen as a global public good — people’s vaccines — accessible and affordable to all," said Guterres in a video message to the high-level webinar on the African Covid-19 Vaccine Financing and Deployment Strategy, held on Wednesday.
The UN Chief also applauded the African Export-Import Bank initiative to avail financing for countries to access the new vaccines.
"Unfortunately, inequities are growing in covid-19 vaccine access and use. We cannot have a world divided between vaccine haves and have-nots. I want to utilize this vital platform today to once again urge all countries, economies and manufacturers to work with — and through — the COVAX facility to realize the commitments of equitable access, especially for the most vulnerable," he stated.
According to Guterres, this includes sharing new excess doses with COVAX to vaccinate immediately all health-care and front?line workers.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) — with the World Bank, Gavi and partners — are urgently working to support the readiness of all countries.
"As additional vaccines come through the development pipeline, I call on manufacturers to prioritize the review of data by WHO, so they can be deployed by COVAX as quickly as possible," he said.
"This will be a strong signal of their intent to meet international standards and to put global access first," he stated.
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