Boost for Vaccine Doses Planned for Poor As Virus Rages On

Health organisations reported on Tuesday that up to 100 million additional doses of any potential Covid-19 vaccine will be secured for distribution to developing countries in 2021, as the virus showed no sign of receding since taking more than one million lives across the world.   

The announcement doubles the number of doses already obtained by the Gavi vaccine alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from the Serum Institute of India, following an initial agreement last month, reports BSS.     

The public-private health alliance emphasized that "potentially many times" the final sum is greater, and said that the price will be capped at $3 per dose.

“No country, rich or poor, should be left at the back of the queue when it comes to Covid-19 vaccines; this collaboration brings us another step closer to achieving this goal,” Gavi chief Seth Berkley said in a statement.

The World Health Organization is speeding up efforts to provide developing nations with quicker and cheaper research, as nine vaccine candidates are in last-stage trials.

The WHO said Monday that under a $600 million program, some 120 million rapid tests for Covid-19 would be made available to low- and middle-income countries at $5 each, as long as financing can be obtained.

In the next six months, the kits, which are simpler, cheaper and easier to administer than normal standard polymerase chain reaction ( PCR) swab tests, but also less accurate, will be rolled out across 133 countries.

"This will allow testing to be expanded, particularly in hard-to-reach areas that do not have laboratory facilities or adequately qualified health workers to conduct PCR tests," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a virtual press conference.

Experts have for months been calling for widespread adoption of this low-cost technology so that people can test themselves several times a week.

In the US, President Donald Trump said 150 million tests would be distributed that deliver results in 15 to 30 minutes.

Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina said the testing drive “is terrific and is a great start”.

But the amount being distributed by the US government was “simply not sufficient” and production should be multiplied ten- or 20-fold, he added

– European wave –

Meanwhile, infection numbers are climbing rapidly in Europe whose governments are clamping down on movement in an attempt to curb the surge.

Paris, London, Madrid have all been forced to introduce controls to slow infections, and Northern Ireland authorities became the latest to tighten curbs, while the Czech Republic and Slovakia said they were preparing to declare a state of emergency.

One million inhabitants of Madrid are under partial curfew, with the city and the surrounding area at the forefront of the second wave of Spain.

Local authorities were informed by the national government on Monday of drastic action if the area failed to act decisively to slow the uncontrolled spread.

Meanwhile, in Greece the first cruise ship to sail to the country since its lockdown docked at the port of Piraeus after a dozen crew members were reported positive for the virus.

Passengers underwent follow-up coronavirus tests, with early results negative.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said Tuesday in Israel, which has the world's highest per capita infection rate, that there was 'no way' the country's second national coronavirus lockdown would be lifted after three weeks as originally scheduled.

WHO Chief Ghebreyesus said that with interventions such as social distancing and handwashing, coronavirus could still be efficiently controlled.

“One million people have now been lost to Covid-19 and many more are suffering because of the pandemic,” Tedros said in an article in the British online newspaper The Independent.

“This milestone is a difficult moment for the world but there are glimmers of hope that encourage us now and in the near future.

“No matter where a country is in an outbreak, it is never too late to turn things around.”

– ‘Never too late’ –

According to an AFP count gathered from official reports, the virus has now infected more than 33 million people worldwide and killed over a million.

Mid-September saw a record increase in cases in most regions and the WHO warned that, without further global concerted intervention, virus deaths might even double to two million.

On Monday the number of cases in India surpassed six million, with the country on course to overtake the United States in the coming weeks as the nation with the most infections.