WHO partners seek US234 billion for new COVID-19 war chest

GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) and other aid groups on Thursday (Oct 28) issued a US$23.4 billion plan to bring COVID-19 vaccines, tests and drugs to poorer countries in the next year, appealing to leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20), who are meeting this weekend, for funding.

The ambitious plan outlines the strategy of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) until September 2022, expected to include the 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 US$10 per course, the plan said, in line with a draft document seen by Reuters earlier this month.

"The request is for US$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-A, told a pre-briefing for selected journalists ahead of a press conference by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

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

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