Your Excellency Anutin Charnvirakul,
Dr Tares Krassanairawiwong,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Sawadee krab.
Just over two years ago, I said that the global spread of COVID-19 could be characterised as a pandemic.
We made that assessment six weeks after we declared COVID-19 a global health emergency – when there were fewer than 100 cases, and no deaths outside China.
Now, two years later, more than 6 million people have died.
Although several countries have lifted restrictions, the pandemic is far from over – and it will not be over anywhere until it’s over everywhere.
The virus continues to evolve, and we continue to face major obstacles in distributing vaccines, tests and treatments everywhere they are needed.
I know we are all ready to move on. But it is far too early to declare victory over COVID-19.
Many countries in Asia and the Pacific are facing surges of cases and deaths – including in Thailand, where I know your country is now facing a worrying increase in cases and deaths.
I offer my deep condolences to all those who have lost someone they love;
I offer my deep respect to your health workers, who as we speak are working under very trying conditions to save lives;
And I offer my deep commitment that WHO will continue to support you in any way we can, through our country office in Bangkok, our regional office in Manila, and from headquarters here in Geneva.
Although deaths are increasing, it’s pleasing to see that they are still nowhere near the levels they reached in August last year.
It’s clear that there is now a decoupling between cases and deaths in Thailand, thanks to the high levels of vaccination you have reached.
But there are still many countries with high rates of hospitalization and death, and low rates of vaccine coverage.
And with high transmission, the threat of a new and more dangerous variant remains very real.
We continue to urge all people in all countries to exercise caution, and we urge all governments to support their people to protect themselves and others.
No single country or government has the power to end the pandemic on its own.
The only sustainable way out of the pandemic is to reach high vaccine coverage in all countries.
Achieving global vaccine equity targets will substantially increase population immunity globally, protect health systems, enable economies to fully restart, and reduce the risk of new variants emerging.
And, yet, more than two years in, profound inequities continue in vaccine distribution. While 56% of the world's population has been fully vaccinated, in low-income countries, it’s only 10%.
Vaccine hoarding, export bans and bilateral deals between manufacturers and high-income nations severely restricted the number of doses that COVAX was able to ship in the first half of last year.
80% of the vaccines that have gone to low-income countries came from COVAX, but we need to do far more.
We are now overcoming many of the supply and delivery constraints we faced last year, with more than 1.3 billion doses of vaccine delivered by COVAX, and the supply outlook for this year is positive. This enables countries to plan national vaccine campaigns more efficiently.
But we are still far off track for achieving our shared goal of vaccinating 70% of the population of each country - prioritizing those who are at the greatest risk of severe disease, as well as our targets for testing and treatment.
To support our efforts to achieve our vaccination target, WHO, UNICEF and Gavi have initiated the COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership, to assist government-led vaccine strategies through political engagement, delivery funding, technical assistance and surge support.
We must focus our attention on addressing the crucial question of how we turn vaccines into vaccinations, how we ensure all countries have enough tests, enough oxygen to treat patients, and enough PPE to keep health workers safe.
And we call on all governments to continue with surveillance, to track the virus, as well as testing to make sure patients receive the right treatment.
To achieve all our targets, we are calling on all countries to fill the urgent financing gap of 15.7 billion US dollars for the ACT Accelerator.
This is essential not only for saving lives and bringing the pandemic under control, but for driving a truly inclusive global recovery, which will benefit all countries.
I am grateful to South Africa and Norway for launching the campaign calling for countries to pay their ‘fair share’ to the ACT Accelerator.
Germany has become the first country to pledge to meet its “fair share”, with a generous contribution of 1.22 billion US dollars. We look forward to other countries following their lead.
The profound inequity in vaccine coverage underscores the need to increase local production of vaccines, especially in low- and middle-income countries. This is a top priority for WHO.
hat is why we established the WHO Technology Transfer Hub in South Africa, which has now developed its own mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Once a vaccine has been successfully developed, other manufacturers from around the world will be able to produce the vaccine for national and regional use.
o far, 13 low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, and Europe are set to receive technology from the hub to produce their own mRNA vaccines.
To strengthen workforce capacity, the WHO Academy and the Republic of Korea are also establishing a global biomanufacturing training hub that will serve low- and middle-income countries wishing to produce biologicals, such as vaccines, insulin, monoclonal antibodies and cancer treatments.
Let me leave you with three priorities.
First, we call on every country to commit to achieving vaccination, testing, treatment and PPE targets, and focus on overcoming the bottlenecks they face;
Second, we call especially on higher-income countries to contribute their ‘fair share’ to the ACT Accelerator for equitable access to COVID-19 tools;
Third, we call on all countries, manufacturers and partners to work with us on enhancing vaccine manufacturing, knowledge sharing and technology transfer.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a powerful demonstration that health is not a luxury, but a human right; not a cost, but an investment; not simply an outcome of development, but the foundation of social, economic and political stability and security.
WHO remains committed to working with all countries to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable.
Kob khun krab. I thank you.