World Health Organization repeated its call for rich countries to contribute $16 billion to a program aimed at ensuring that low- and middle-income countries have equal access to vaccines, treatments, and personal protective equipment.
The ACT-Accelerator is asking donor countries to contribute $16.8 billion of the $23.4 billion total budget in immediate grant funding for October 2021 to September 2022, said the WHO.
“The rapid spread of omicron makes it even more urgent to ensure tests, treatments and vaccines are distributed equitably globally,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus in a statement.
“If higher-income countries pay their fair share of the ACT-Accelerator costs, the partnership can support low- and middle-income countries to overcome low COVID-19 vaccination levels, weak testing, and medicine shortages.”
He said science had given the world tools to fight COVID-19, and if they are shared globally, the world can reach its goal of ending the pandemic as a global health emergency this year.
WHO said only $814 million of the $16.8 billion has been pledged so far.
The ACT-Accelerator initiative works to overcome vast global inequities by providing low- and middle-income countries with access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, vaccines, and personal protective equipment.
The accelerator agencies urgently need new funding to scale up their work to develop and deliver the COVID-19 countermeasures essential to address the threat of omicron and prevent even more dangerous variants from emerging.
