- Yesterday, the World Health Assembly wrapped up a highly productive week of discussions and decisions. Together we adopted more than 30 resolutions and decisions on a broad range of health challenges. There was a clear consensus that the world needs a stronger WHO, now more than ever.
- Tomorrow, COVAX, co-led by Gavi, CEPI and WHO, alongside key implementation partner UNICEF, aims to raise critical new funds at it’s AMC Summit to further diversify its portfolio and buy additional vaccines for low- and lower-middle-income countries.
- I’m happy to announce that the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine has been given WHO Emergency Use Listing after being found to be safe, effective and quality assured following two doses of the inactivated vaccine. It is now the eighth vaccine to receive EUL by WHO.
- Overnight, I joined leaders from the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the World Bank Group in publishing an op-ed in many newspapers around the world that calls for a new commitment with a 50 billion US dollars rapid investment to fund the equitable distribution of vaccines and other crucial health tools.
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
Yesterday, the World Health Assembly wrapped up a highly productive week of discussions and decisions. It was conducted entirely virtually.
While I both miss, and look forward to, meeting with colleagues in person, I was heartened that together we adopted more than 30 resolutions and decisions on a broad range of health challenges.
There was a clear consensus that the world needs a stronger WHO, now more than ever.
And the three recent reviews of the international response to the pandemic reflected the need for a paradigm shift in both the quantity and quality of funding for WHO.
Member States also agreed to hold a WHO Special Session of the World Health Assembly in November to consider developing a WHO treaty or convention on pandemic preparedness and response.
This will be a very important opportunity, for a new, truly representative, inclusive global compact to keep our health systems, societies and economies safer.
But there is still a lot of work to do to end this pandemic.
While we’re encouraged that cases and deaths are continuing to decline in many areas globally, there is no room for complacency.
The consistent use of public health measures, in combination with equitable access to medical supplies, oxygen, tests, treatments and vaccines, remains critical.
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Tomorrow, COVAX, co-led by Gavi, CEPI and WHO, alongside key implementation partner UNICEF, aims to raise critical new funds at it’s AMC Summit to further diversify its portfolio and buy additional vaccines for low- and lower-middle-income countries.
Fully financing COVAX and ACT-A is key to ending the increasingly two-track pandemic and I thank the Government of Japan for hosting the AMC summit.
And today, I’m happy to announce that the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine has been given WHO Emergency Use Listing after being found to be safe, effective and quality assured following two doses of the inactivated vaccine.
Furthermore, the easy storage requirements of CoronaVac make it very suitable for low-resource settings. It is now the eighth vaccine to receive EUL by WHO.
It’s now crucial to get these lifesaving tools to the people that need them quickly.
Overnight, I joined leaders from the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the World Bank Group in publishing an op-ed in many newspapers around the world that calls for a new commitment with a 50 billion US dollars rapid investment
to fund the equitable distribution of vaccines and other crucial health tools.
We particularly welcome that in the proposal, the majority of the new funding would be made available quickly through grants, including to fill the ACT Accelerator’s funding gap.
This would help us dramatically scale up the production of diagnostics, treatments, oxygen, medical equipment and vaccines for equitable distribution.
Furthermore, this new roadmap reflects the need to enhance countries readiness and capacity systems to utilise these tools rapidly, safely and effectively.
It should be a real game changer and as G7 finance leaders meet in the UK this week, followed by a heads of state summit next week, there are multiple opportunities for leaders to step up.
As well as securing funds to roll out health tools equitably, now is the moment for leaders to share vaccine doses with COVAX, ensure health workers and other at-risk people are protected, and extinguish variants.
Last week I called for all countries, companies and partners to work together to vaccinate at least 10 percent of the population of every country by September and at least 30 percent by the end of the year.
As we said in our joint op-ed, along with other agreements and surge investment, it’s possible that we could reach 40 percent by the end of the year.
Through public health measures and vaccines, we have the means to end this pandemic quickly and save countless lives and livelihoods, but we need the will to make it happen.
They say where there is a will there is a way. We know the way; the question is, do we have the will?
To say more about how this can be achieved, I’m glad today to be joined today by Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund.
Kristalina, thank you so much for joining us today and you have the floor.
[KRISTALINA GEORGIEVA ADDRESSES THE MEDIA]
Thank you, Kristalina, I couldn’t agree more that this new injection of funds will be critical to increasing the supply of lifesaving medical tools.
Next, it gives me great pleasure to welcome Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization.
Dr Ngozi, you have the floor.
[DR NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA ADDRESSES THE MEDIA]
Thank you, Dr Ngozi. You have been fighting this pandemic since the beginning in a variety of roles.
I appreciate your point that as well as financing, the WTO is doing all it can to ensure the smooth flow of vaccines and raw materials across borders to increase access, while also accelerating negotiations around intellectual property.
Finally, we are joined by David Malpass, President of the World Bank Group.
David thank you for joining, the floor is yours.
[DAVID MALPASS ADDRESSES THE MEDIA]
Thank you David, and again to all the speakers who together have laid out a comprehensive new health, trade and economic roadmap to increase health equity and speed up a truly global and quick recovery.
I thank you again, Christian back to you.