[ad_1]
President Iván Duque announced this Tuesday, during his speech at the United Nations general assembly, that Colombia signed the agreement with the COVAX mechanism, which seeks to guarantee the access of millions of people to vaccines safe and effective against the new coronavirus.
(Also: ‘A second wave of covid-19 would not be as lethal as the first’)
“We announce that we have signed an agreement with COVAX to have access to millions of vaccines. In accordance with the inter-institutional and intersectoral committee where the main medical and scientific associations participate, we hope to have access that allows us to disperse the vaccine to serve not only health personnel but also people with greater population vulnerability, as adults over 60 years old, ”said President Duque.
The president, in any case, assured that the country has already made progress in negotiations with laboratories “Which can be announced in the coming days and are aimed at covering other spaces of what can be the development of a successful project”.
But beyond those particular negotiations, the COVAX mechanism is an alliance between different countries in order to have access to safe and effective vaccines for covid-19 through agreements in which nations agree to purchase a specific percentage of doses.
(Also read: This is the study that will measure the real impact of the pandemic in Colombia)
“It is a global initiative aimed at collaborating with vaccine manufacturers so that countries around the world have equitable access to safe and effective vaccines once they have been licensed and authorized,” explained the World Health Organization. (WHO).
“In this mechanism, what is expected is that will acquire two billion vaccines throughout 2021 with an equitable distribution among the different countries that take part”, Indicated a few weeks ago the Minister of Health, Fernando Ruiz.
According to the WHO, 172 countries in the world – representing more than 70 percent of the world population – were agreeing to join this mechanism and until last August, this initiative comprised nine candidate vaccines and another nine were in the evaluation process.
(You may be interested in: The myths that have been disproved about covid-19 since its appearance)
COVAX is co-led by the Coalition for the Promotion of Innovations for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI), the Alliance for Vaccines (Gavi) and the World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with vaccine manufacturers from developed countries and in development.
According to the program’s schedules, Colombia confirmed its participation on September 18 and you have until October 9 to make the first payments. It is expected that between participating countries and individuals, 2.4 billion dollars can be raised to develop at least three successful vaccines.
“By pooling resources and acting in solidarity through the COVAX mechanism, we can ensure that, once a COVID-19 vaccine is available, it will be equally available in all countries,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, CEO of the WHO.
The goal of COVAX is to distribute by the end of 2021 close to 2 billion doses of safe and effective vaccines that have achieved regulatory clearance or WHO prequalification. These vaccines will be offered equitably to all participating countries, in proportion to their population. Initially, health workers will be prioritized and then expanded to cover vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions.
(We recommend: This is how Colombia stopped producing vaccines)
HEALTH UNIT
Check here all the news from the EL TIEMPO Health Unit.
Contact us through @Health, on Twitter, or by email at [email protected].
[ad_2]
