World leaders united Friday to demand $19 billion of investment in weapons to beat the Covid-19 pandemic, saying the “miracle” of vaccines did not mean the end was in sight.
One year on from the launch of the Access to Covid Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a multi-billion-dollar internationally-coordinated attempt to find vaccines, tests and treatments, the billionth vaccine dose is on the verge of being administered.
But leaders warned that despite the progress so far, another push was needed to see off the pandemic, as variants of the virus stalk the planet and the disease takes off in India.
“We cannot allow the virus to run out of control across entire regions,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.
“The appearance of new variants demonstrated that our health also depends on the poorest countries.
“Much remains to be done.”
The ACT-Accelerator is seeking $22 billion this year to further the assault on the pandemic but is $19 billion short.
“World leaders face a choice: invest in saving lives by treating the cause of the pandemic everywhere, now, or continue to spend trillions on the consequences with no end in sight,” said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“We can only end the pandemic by funding, sharing, and scaling-up access to the tools we need to fight the disease.”
At its launch 12 months ago, the pandemic was still in its infancy.
The death toll — now more than three million — stood at around 190,000, while only 2.7 million people had been infected, compared to more than 144 million confirmed cases today.
