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Published: 11:01, October 28, 2021 | Updated: 03:59, October 29, 2021
WHO, partners seek $23.4b for new COVID-19 war chest
By Agencies
Published:11:01, October 28, 2021 Updated:03:59, October 29, 2021 By Agencies

This photograph taken on March 5, 2021 shows the flag of the World Health Organization (WHO) at their headquarters in Geneva amid the COVID-19 outbreak. (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)

BRASILIA / THE HAGUE / MEXICO CITY / LONDON / BERLIN / MOSCOW / PRAGUE / BRUSSELS - The World Health Organization and other aid groups on Thursday appealed to leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies to fund a $23.4 billion plan to bring COVID-19 vaccines, tests and drugs to poorer countries in the next year.

The ambitious plan outlines the strategy of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) until September 2022, expected to include use of an experimental oral antiviral pill made by Merck & Co for treating mild and moderate cases.

The ambitious plan outlines the strategy of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) until September 2022, expected to include use of an experimental oral antiviral pill made by Merck & Co for treating mild and moderate cases

If the pill is approved by regulatory authorities, the cost could be as little as $10 per course, the plan said, in line with a draft document seen by Reuters earlier this month.

"The request is for $23.4 billion. That's a fair amount of money, but if you compare with the damage also done to global economy by the pandemic it is not really that much," Carl Bildt, WHO Special Envoy to the ACT-Accelerator, told a pre-briefing for selected journalists ahead of a press conference by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The request comes ahead of a meeting this weekend of leaders of the Group of 20 comprising the world's biggest rich and emerging economies.

Bildt, a former prime minister of Sweden, acknowledged that the ACT-A has struggled to secure previous financing and noted that Norway and South Africa co-chair a fund-raising effort.

"So we do expect a strong signal from (the G20) coming out of the meeting in Rome over the weekend," he said.

Equal budgets of $7 billion are earmarked for both vaccines and diagnostic tests, with a further $5.9 billion for boosting health systems and $3.5 billion for treatments including antivirals, corticosteroids, and medical oxygen.

COVAX, the vaccines arm of the ACT-A, has delivered some 400 million COVID-19 doses to more than 140 low- and middle-income countries, where vaccination rates remain low, WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said.

"We know there are about 30 countries that are dependent on COVAX alone, they have no other source of vaccines," she said.

About 82 countries are likely to miss a WHO global target of 40 percent vaccination coverage by year-end, but some of them could if supplies start flowing, she said.

Referring to India which resumed "relatively modest" COVID-19 vaccine exports this month after suspending them in April due to its domestic epidemic, Swaminathan said: "I think these volumes coming out of India will go up significantly."

She added: "One of the things that is now interfering in a big way is the need for boosters, more and more high income countries are going in for the booster doses and this is now sucking up the vaccine doses as well."

The US Food and Drug Administration is considering emergency use authorization of molnupiravir, the antiviral pill Merck has developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. It was shown in a clinical trial to halve the risk of serious disease and death when given early for COVID-19.

On Wednesday Merck announced it had signed a licensing agreement with the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) that will allow more companies to manufacture generic versions of the drug. The royalty-free license would apply to 105 low- and middle-income countries.

"We are particularly excited and cautiously optimistic about the potential for new oral treatments for outpatient treatment for mild and moderate COVID, for example molnupiravir," Robert Matiru, director of programs at UNITAID, told reporters.

In this Oct 5, 2021, file photo a healthcare worker fills a syringe with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, US. (LYNNE SLADKY / AP)

Americas

COVID-19 is slowly retreating across most of North, Central and South America, the Pan American Health Organization said on Wednesday, reporting that last week the continent's death and infection figures were the lowest in over a year.

Many of the larger Caribbean islands are seeing downward trends, including Cuba, the site of a major months-long COVID-19 outbreak.

However, Paraguay saw a doubling of coronavirus cases in the last week and Belize a sharp jump in COVID-related deaths, the regional branch of the World Health Organization said in a briefing.

"We have reason to be optimistic, but we must remain vigilant," PAHO Assistant Director Jarbas Barbosa said.

Nearly 44 percent of people in Latin America and the Caribbean have completed their COVID-19 immunizations, thanks largely to donations, made bilaterally or through the WHO-led COVAX facility.

Over 3 million more doses will arrive in the region through COVAX this week, as deliveries pick up in the final months of the year, Barbosa said.

He appealed to leaders of the G20 major economies meeting this weekend in Rome to do more to hasten equitable distribution of vaccines through donations, saying no country would be safe while others were still unprotected against the coronavirus.

European Union


The European Union will produce more than 3.5 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines next year, the head of the bloc's executive, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said on Thursday.

She added that the majority of these vaccines will be shipped abroad.

Germany


Germany's coronavirus caseload took its biggest jump in two weeks on Thursday, with over 28,000 new infections, the Robert Koch Institute said, adding heft to worries about restrictions this winter.

The number of new infections per 100,000 people over seven days - one of the metrics used to determine policy measures - stands at 130.2, up 12.2 points from 118.0 the previous day. New infections have been steadily creeping up since mid-October.

The number of COVID-19 patients in ICU has risen 15 percent within a week, the head of the German Hospital Federation, Gerald Gass, told the Redaktionsnetwork Deutschland media group.

If the trend continues, he said, there could be 3,000 cases in the ICU in two weeks.

The three political parties in talks to form the next government have said they do not support extending a pandemic-related state of emergency set to expire on Nov 25.

Instead, they have recommended amending Germany’s Infection Protection Act to allow states to impose protective measures.

ALSO READ: Russia reports record COVID-19 daily death toll

This undated photo shows signage outside Merck & Co headquarters in Kenilworth, New Jersey. (CHRISTOPHER OCCHICONE / BLOOMBERG)

Hungary


Hungary will allow companies to enforce COVID-19 vaccines on staff as a condition of employment, as the number of cases surges and the vaccination program stalls. The government will also demand that public-sector workers receive a shot, while compulsory mask-wearing will be re-introduced on public transport from next week.

Merck

Merck & Co reached a licensing agreement aimed at widening access to its promising COVID-19 pill, a pact health advocates hope will spur other pharmaceutical companies to act.

The accord with the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool will help make the antiviral therapy available in more than 100 low- and middle-income nations if it gains approval, allowing generic-drug companies to apply for licenses to make the experimental drug, according to a statement Wednesday.

Mexico

A Mexican court has ordered health authorities to give more COVID-19 vaccinations to children aged 12 to 17, media reported on Wednesday, just as other countries have stepped up their inoculation of children.

The Mexican government has focused its vaccine campaign on adults, in addition to some especially vulnerable children, and about 40 percent of men and women are fully vaccinated overall.

Milenio newspaper reported that a federal court order from acting Judge Claudia Irene Gamez gives the health ministry five days to update its national vaccine plan to include 12- to 17-year-olds, threatening to file a complaint with prosecutors if the ministry failed to do so.

The government said last month that it would inoculate up to a million children aged 12 to 17 who were especially vulnerable due to underlining health conditions like diabetes or cancer.

Netherlands

The number of positive COVID-19 tests in the Netherlands over the past 24 hours rose to the highest amount in over three months, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment announced on Wednesday.

The RIVM reported 7,301 positive tests from Tuesday to Wednesday, 1,526 more than that in the previous 24 hours. It was the highest number since July 19.

The number of positive tests also increased in the weekly figures. Over the past seven days, 41,409 new positive tests were registered, an average of 5,916 positive tests per day. That is 56 percent more than the previous week.

An employee of the Federal State Center for Special Risk Rescue Operations of Russia Emergency Situations disinfects a platform of Savyolovsky railway station in Moscow, Russia, Oct 26, 2021. (ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO / AP)

Russia

The Russian capital brought in its strictest lockdown measures since June 2020 on Thursday as hospitals confront a rising wave of coronavirus cases that has sent one-day pandemic deaths to record highs.

The partial lockdown, in which only essential shops like pharmacies and supermarkets are allowed to remain open, while schools and state kindergartens are shut, comes ahead of a nationwide week-long workplace shutdown from Oct 30.

Like Moscow, some regions decided to kick off their partial lockdowns on Thursday or earlier, ahead of the nationwide initiative.

Moscow's residents are allowed to leave their homes freely unlike the lockdown of summer 2020, but the new measures point to rising concern among officials over record numbers of deaths that the Kremlin has blamed on the slow vaccination rate.

Many Russians have decided that now is an ideal time to fly off for a foreign beach holiday instead of hunkering down at home.

Meanwhile, Russia has reported 36,582 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 8,352,601, the official monitoring and response center said on Wednesday.

The nationwide death toll grew by 1,123, the highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic, to 233,898. The number of recoveries increased by 29,151 to 7,242,735.

Meanwhile, Moscow, Russia's worst-hit region, reported 5,789 new cases, taking its total to 1,786,570.

According to official data, about 53.5 million Russian citizens had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine as of Friday and around 49 million had been fully vaccinated. 

Slovakia

Slovakia’s parliament cancelled its session on Thursday after one lawmaker tested positive for COVID-19, local media reported, as the country struggles with elevated case numbers.

Parliament adjourned the session until Nov 2 after the member from the ruling coalition tested positive, TA3 television reported. Most of the 150 lawmakers are fully vaccinated, many of them went for a test after the case was reported, TA3 said.

The parliament’s press office did not immediately respond to questions on the matter.

Slovakia has been reporting elevated numbers of daily new cases of the illness in recent weeks, as the country of 5.5 million has one of the lower rates of vaccination in the European Union.


Passengers walk on a London underground platform in central London, Oct 22, 2021 as the Department of Health and Social Care is calling upon eligible people to get their COVID-19 booster vaccinations. (DOMINIC LIPINSKI/ PA VIA AP)

United Kindom

Another 43,941 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 8,897,149, according to official figures released Wednesday.

The country also reported a further 207 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 140,041. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.

There are currently 8,801 patients in hospital with COVID-19.

United States

An advisory panel of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet on Nov 2 to discuss the use of COVID-19 vaccines in children aged between 5 and 11 years.

Advisors to the US Food and Drug Administration had on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to recommend that the regulator authorize Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine for younger children.

The shot has been authorized for ages 12-15 since May and it was cleared for those aged 16 and above in December last year.


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