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The mechanism, “ACT Accelerator” in its original name, is a global alliance led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners for the global and fair production of diagnostics, therapies and vaccines. The Covax network is the pillar designed to ensure universal access to a vaccine against the disease.
In a statement, WHO said that 5.1 billion dollars (4.3 billion euros) are already committed, after new contributions, including the Paris Peace Forum, whose second edition took place this year. week and which brought together government leaders and international organizations.
But he also says that for the initiative to be successful, additional funding will be needed.
WHO says the European Commission, France, Spain, South Korea and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have pledged $ 360 million (€ 304 million) to Covax, the pillar of the ACT Accelerator vaccines.
And he says, regarding the Paris Forum, that Emmanuel Macron, French president, Erna Solberg, Norwegian prime minister, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general, and Melinda Gates, co-president of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, discussed the need for multilateral action and the role of the ACT Accelerator “to end the acute phase of the pandemic as soon as possible”.
And they warned that the global ability to profoundly change the dynamics of the pandemic in the first half of 2021 is at risk if there are delays in urgent funding.
The WHO statement says that in addition to the additional $ 4.2 billion (€ 3.5 billion) needed this year, another $ 23.9 billion (€ 20.1 billion) will be needed in 2021. EUR).
Recalling that since April, the ACT Accelerator partnership “has supported the fastest, most coordinated and successful global effort in history to develop tools to fight a disease,” WHO says there are “significant” advances in research and development in ways to fight the disease and that the joint initiative is poised to ensure a way to attack the acute phase of the pandemic by developing tests, treatments and vaccines.
Through the ACT Accelerator, recalls the WHO statement, more than 50 diagnostic tests are being evaluated and rapid tests are made available for poor countries, as well as new treatments under evaluation. Through the Covax network, nine vaccines are being evaluated.
The funding needed will also increase, WHO says, the number and capacity of tests, accelerate the availability of the drug dexamethasone and oxygen, and launch large-scale vaccination.
At the Peace Forum, cited in the statement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the $ 28 billion needed ($ 4.2 billion this year and $ 23.9 billion next year) equals that the industry transport and the global tourism sector lose in just two days of imprisonment.
The covid-19 pandemic has caused at least 1,294,539 deaths in more than 52.7 million cases of the infection worldwide, according to a report by the French agency AFP.
In Portugal, 3,250 people have died out of 204,664 confirmed cases of infection, according to the latest bulletin of the Directorate General of Health.
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