Investment needed for Covid-19 preparedness

Health Watch

THERE needs to be an investment in equitable production and access to the Covid-19 rapid tests, oxygen, treatments and vaccines between and within countries, an official says.
World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this in a statement on Tuesday.
Ghebreyesus said the Covid-19 had impacted the poorest and most marginalised and the world needed to make five vital changes.
He said the first change was to invest in equitable production and access to the Covid-19 rapid tests, oxygen, treatments and vaccines between and within countries.
“At the start of the year, I made a call for every country to start vaccinating health workers and older people in the first 100 days of 2021,” he said.
“This week will mark the 100th day and 190 countries and economies have now started vaccination.”
Ghebreyesus said the Covid-19 vaccines global access (Covax) itself had already delivered 36 million doses to 86 countries and economies.
Covax, is a global initiative aimed at equitable access to the Covid-19 vaccines led by Unicef, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and others.
“Supply chains are up and running and health systems primed,” Ghebreyesus said.
“Scaling up production and equitable distribution remains the major barrier to ending the acute stage of this pandemic.
“It is a travesty that in some countries health workers and those at-risk groups remain completely unvaccinated.”