Geneva: With Delta variant of COVID-19 on path to becoming dominant strain worldwide, the World Health Organization’s ACT-Accelerator has launched urgent US$ 7.7 billion appeal to stem surge of these dangerous variants and save lives everywhere.
The Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator) is a global coalition of organizations developing and deploying the new diagnostics, treatments and vaccines needed to end the acute phase of the pandemic.
While four variants of concern currently dominate the epidemiology, there are fears that new, and possibly more dangerous, variants of concern may emerge.
The surge in the highly transmissible Delta variant has increased urgency for vaccinating large numbers of vulnerable people, the WHO stated, and clarified that the US$ 7.7 billion was not an additional funding need but was part of the ACT-Accelerator’s overall 2021 budget, which was needed urgently within the next four months.
More COVID-19 cases reported in the first five months of 2021 than in the whole of 2020, and according to WHO, the world is still in the acute phase of the pandemic – despite high vaccination rates in some countries protecting populations from severe disease and death. Inadequate testing and low vaccination rates are exacerbating disease transmission and overwhelming local health systems, while leaving the whole world vulnerable to new variants.
Many countries are experiencing new waves of infections – and while many high-income countries and some upper-middle-income countries have implemented widespread vaccinations, put more robust testing systems in place, and made treatments increasingly available – many low- and lower-middle-income countries are struggling to access these vital tools due to a lack of funds and supplies.
Investing in the ACT-Accelerator to make tools available to everyone, everywhere, will benefit all countries through a more globally inclusive and coordinated response, WHO stated, and spelt out the areas where the funding was required. It stated that funding the Rapid ACT-Accelerator Delta Response (RADAR) urgent appeal for US $7.7 billion would enable: significantly increased testing and better surveillance to detect and protect against new variants; more oxygen to treat the seriously ill and save lives; vital personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect health workers; the rolling out of emergency response and delivery support for the effective delivery and deployment of COVID-19 tools, including in humanitarian contexts; and continued research and development (R&D) so that tools remain effective.
Besides, it stated that in addition to the US$ 7.7 billion appeal, there was an opportunity to reserve the supply of vaccines through exercising options in the fourth quarter of 2021 for 760 million doses of vaccine to be available in mid-2022 beyond the fully subsidised doses that COVAX will deliver up to the end of Q1 2022. Commitments to reserve these vaccine options in the last quarter of the year for delivery in the middle of 2022 can be made to Gavi/COVAX, as part of the ACT-A network of agencies.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, warned: “This [US $ 7.7 billion] investment is a tiny portion of the amount governments are spending to deal with COVID-19 and makes ethical, economic and epidemiological sense. If these funds aren’t made available now to stop the transmission of Delta in the most vulnerable countries, we will undoubtedly all pay the consequences later in the year.”
Carl Bildt, WHO Special Envoy to the ACT-Accelerator, commented: “Ending the pandemic will generate trillions of dollars in economic return due to increased global economic output and reduced need for government stimulus plans to deal with the health and financial crisis that COVID-19 causes. The window for action is now.”
The ACT-Accelerator recently published its Q2 2021 Update Report, which provides an overview of the progress made in bringing life-saving COVID-19 tools to countries around the world, and highlights the efforts made to ensure health systems are able to receive and fully optimize the use of COVID-19 countermeasures, during the April-to-June 2021 period. It shows how investments made to the ACT-Accelerator have driven results and impact in the fight against COVID-19.
Increased global discourse and new initiatives echo the imperative to achieve equity in the fight against the pandemic. In just over 15 months, by 9 August, 2021 donors had stepped up and provided US$ 17.8 billion of the ACT-Accelerator’s US$ 38.1 billion funding needs. This unprecedented generosity has driven the fastest and most coordinated effort in history to develop tools to protect global health security, and to deliver impact where it is most needed, WHO stated.
– global bihari bureau
