GENEVA, Aug 18, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The WHO wrote to every country on
Tuesday urging them to quickly join its global shared vaccine
programme and spelled out who would get its eventual coronavirus jabs
first.
The World Health Organization’s director-general Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus said that without vaccinating the highest-risk populations
around the world all at the same time, it would be impossible to
rebuild the global economy.
And, he said, the most exposed 20 percent of each country’s
population — including front-line health workers, adults over 65 and
those with pre-existing conditions — would be targeted in the first
wave of vaccinations, once the WHO-spearheaded and shared facility can
roll out a proven safe and effective vaccine.
“We have learned the hard way that the fastest way to end this
pandemic and to reopen economies is to start by protecting the highest
risk populations everywhere, rather than the entire populations of
just some countries,” Tedros told a virtual press conference.
The novel coronavirus has killed nearly 775,000 people and infected
almost 22 million since the outbreak emerged in China last December,
according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.
Researchers and pharmaceutical giants around the world are racing
to produce a vaccine, with nine of the 29 currently being tested on
humans forming part of the shared COVAX Global Vaccines Facility.
– Two-phase rollout –
Some 92 countries are signed up to COVAX — an effort to pool the
costs and rewards of finding, producing and distributing effective
vaccines — while a further 80 have expressed interest but are yet to
come fully on board.
The WHO is looking for countries to signal a firm interest by August 31.
“The COVAX Global Vaccines Facility is the critical mechanism for
joint procurement and pooling risk across multiple vaccines, which is
why today I sent a letter to every member state encouraging them to
join,” Tedros said.
He specified that the allocation of vaccines would be rolled out in
two phases.
In the first, doses would be allocated proportionally to all
participating countries simultaneously, in order to reduce the overall
global risk.
In the second phase, individual countries’ threat and vulnerability
level will come into play.
Tedros said front-line workers in health and social care settings
would get first phase priority, “as they are essential to treat and
protect the population, and come in close contact with high-mortality
risk groups” he explained.
He said initial data showed that adults over 65 and those with
particular pre-existing conditions were at the highest risk of dying
from COVID-19.
“For most countries, a phase one allocation that builds up to 20
percent of the population would cover most of the at-risk groups,”
said Tedros.
“If we don’t protect these highest risk people from the virus
everywhere and at the same time, we can’t stabilise health systems and
rebuild the global economy.”