WHO to raise $31.3 billion against Covid-19
Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the WHO-led global response to Covid-19 needs $31.3 billion for therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics over the next 12 months, including two billion doses of vaccines.
The money would go to the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator, or ACT-Accelerator, a global collaboration initiated in April to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to Covid-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. Xinhua reported.
The WHO said on Friday some $3.4 billion has been contributed to date, resulting in a funding gap of $27.9 billion, of which $13.7 billion of the remaining gap is urgently needed. It plans to scale up delivery of 500 million tests and 245 million courses of treatments to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by mid-2021, as well as two billion vaccine doses, of which one billion to be purchased for LMICs, by the end of 2021.
