Health Minister confirms Grenada is part of WHO ACT Accelerator

Health Minister Nicholas Steele has confirmed that Grenada is one of the 172 countries that has complied with the request from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to join the vaccine arm of The Access to coronavirus (COVID-19) Tools.

The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is a new, ground breaking global collaboration to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.

“Yes, we are part of the 172 countries who received the request and accepted,” Steele said on Monday, adding “it is not costing us financially”.

Grenada has recorded 24 cases of the virus with no deaths. Globally, the virus has killed 809,000 and infected 23.4 million others since it was discovered in December last year in China.

WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the daily news conference on Monday said that most of the organisation’s members are engaging the COVAX Global Vaccine Facility.

The WHO has 194 member states – all of the member states of the United Nations except for Liechtenstein, plus the Cook Islands and Niue. A state becomes a full member of WHO by ratifying the treaty known as the Constitution of the World Health Organization.

“Last week I sent a letter to all member states requesting them to join the vaccine arm of the ACT accelerator, I am pleased to announce that 172 countries are now engaging with the COVAX Global Vaccine facility which has the largest and most diverse COVID-19 vaccine portfolio in the world,” Ghebreyesus said.

“At present, there are nine vaccines that are part of this dynamic portfolio, which is constantly being reviewed and optimised to ensure access to the best possible range of products. Even now discussions are ongoing with four more producers and a further nine vaccines are currently under evaluation for the longer term,” he told the virtual news conference.

“The facility is critical, it’s the critical mechanism for joined procurement across multiple vaccines so whatever vaccine is proved to be safe all countries within the facility will access them. Most importantly it is the mechanism to enable a globally coordinated roll-out. This is in the best interest of all countries even those that have invested with individual manufacturers independently,” the Director-General said.

“We are working with vaccine manufacturers to provide all countries that join the effort, timely and equitable access to all vaccines, licensed and approved. This does not just pool risk, it also means that prices will be kept as low as possible,” said Ghebreyesus.

Story vis CMC