"Science has given us the tools" to fight the pandemic, "if shared globally in solidarity, we can end Covid-19 as a global health emergency this year," said the chief executive of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"If high-income countries pay their fair share" in funding the ACT-A scheme, this program "can help low- and middle-income countries overcome low Covid-19 vaccination rates, low ( the number) of tests and the shortage of drugs," he said in a statement.

The meteoric spread of the Omicron variant makes the equitable distribution of tests, treatments and vaccines all the more urgent, he insisted.

The ACT-A accelerator, English acronym for Access to tools against Covid, is a device created by major international health agencies but also the World Bank or the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

Led by the WHO, it is responsible for speeding up access to tools to fight Covid-19 in disadvantaged countries.

A shipment of Covid-19 vaccines made available by the Covax system arrives in Khartoum on October 6, 2021 Ebrahim HAMID AFP/Archives

One of its components is the Covax system, set up at the start of the pandemic and before the arrival of effective vaccines, to try to guarantee equitable access for the whole world to vaccines.

He delivered his billionth dose of vaccine in mid-January.

The operation of ACT-A needed some $23.4 billion over the October 2021 – September 2022 period, but only $800 million has been raised so far.

The program therefore calls for 16 billion dollars from rich countries "to fill the immediate funding gap", with the rest to be self-financed by middle-income countries.

Six countries - Canada, Germany, Kuwait, Norway, Saudi Arabia and Sweden - have reached or exceeded a level of fair funding.

Only 0.4% of the 4.7 billion Covid-19 screening tests carried out worldwide have been used in disadvantaged countries where, moreover, 10% of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine.

"Act Now"

Unequal access to Covid vaccines, tests and treatments is only prolonging the pandemic, said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who co-chairs the ACT-A Facilitating Council.

The world facing the coronavirus Simon MALFATTO AFP

“I appeal to other leaders to increase solidarity, do their part and help save our lives in the face of the virus,” he said.

Mr. Ramaphosa and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, the other co-chair, have written to 55 high- and middle-income countries, especially in the upper bracket, to encourage them to pay their contributions.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that defeating the pandemic is within reach this year.

"But we must act now," he insisted.

“If we want to ensure that everyone is vaccinated to end this pandemic, we must first inject fairness into the system,” Guterres said.

“Vaccine inequity is the greatest moral failure of our time and people and countries are paying the price,” he concluded.

"Public health does not stop at our borders. We are all in danger and we must all react to reverse the course of things. Let's do it!", said the US Secretary of Health, Xavier Becerra. , of which the country must make the largest contribution to this plan, namely six billion dollars.

© 2022 AFP