60 countries join the WHO mechanism to facilitate access to a vaccine International news



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Until yesterday, about a million inhabitants of the Community of Madrid were asked to “stay at home most of the time”, with the aim of containing a new outbreak of Covid-19, as the United States approaches the threshold of the 200,000 deaths from the epidemic. Yesterday, more than 60 rich countries, with the exception of the United States and China, joined the mechanism launched by the World Health Organization to facilitate access by poor countries to a vaccine against the emerging coronavirus, according to a published list .

“I think something needs to be done” given the high number of virus infections, said Gustavo Ojeda, 56, as he returned from work in an industrial zone near Madrid to Puente de Vallecas, a poor neighborhood in the south of the capital. , which is covered by the new measures.

According to the new measures, some 850,000 people (of the 6.6 million who live in and around Madrid) are prohibited from leaving their neighborhoods except for specific reasons, such as going to work or studying, visiting a doctor, attending a court summons or assist people in need of help.

The neighborhoods of the capital and its surroundings, subject to the measures, registered a rate of more than a thousand cases per 100,000 inhabitants during the last two weeks. Worldwide, the epidemic has killed at least 961,531 people since it appeared in China in late December.

And it officially counted more than 31.1 million injuries, including 21 million recovery cases.

The United States is the country most affected by the number of deaths (199,513), followed by Brazil (136,895), India (87,882), Mexico (73,493) and the United Kingdom (41,759).

In London, health authorities warned yesterday that the country must “change direction” to prevent the “spread” of a second wave of the virus that could cause 200 deaths a day in November in Britain.

In Ireland, all bars have opened after six months of closure, except those that serve alcohol only in the capital Dublin, which has become a hotbed of new infections.

Likewise, a study prepared by a non-governmental organization that was published indicated that the epidemic has a “devastating” economic impact on the world’s most vulnerable people, such as the displaced or those living in conflict zones, who face the risk of starvation. and school dropout.

In India, which has the second highest number of cases of the epidemic in the world, the Taj Mahal, which is a symbolic landmark of Indo-Islamic architecture, opened its doors after six months of closure, despite the significant increase in the number of new infections in the country.

In Quebec, authorities announced that, as of yesterday, the number of people authorized to gather in “rented halls, places of worship, ceremonial functions and weddings” will be reduced from 250 to 50.

And in the United States, which is close to crossing the threshold of 200,000 deaths, the stars of television series participated Sunday night from their living rooms or sleeping in the Emmy awards ceremony, which is equal in importance to the Oscar of the small screen in the United States, and that the presenter renamed it ‘Bandimiz’ because of the context. The exception associated with the pandemic.

The United States registers about a thousand deaths a day, which is equivalent to the number of people, approximately four times the death rate in Europe.

The situation seems particularly worrisome in Belgium, where the number of injuries topped 100,000 on Sunday, and in France, where more than 10,000 new infections were recorded in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, more than 60 rich countries, except the United States and China, have joined the mechanism established by the World Health Organization to facilitate access by poor countries to a vaccine against the emerging corona virus, according to a list. published.

While many countries do not have the resources to produce their own vaccines, the World Health Organization announced a few weeks ago, in cooperation with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), that it had launched a global mechanism to get a Covid-19 vaccine on behalf of “Kovacs”.

At the end of August, the organization asked countries that can be financed in this regard to strictly commit themselves by entering this mechanism before September 18 and to start the initial payments before October 9, at the latest. More than 90 countries or entities with limited or medium returns can join the mechanism, as well as 64 countries with high returns, as confirmed by the World Health Organization in a statement. The latter includes the commitments made by the European Commission on behalf of the 27 member states of the European Union, as well as Norway and Iceland. The United States, which announced the beginning of its formal departure from the organization, does not appear on the list, nor does China.

When asked why China was not on the list, “GAVI” CEO Seth Berkeley responded during a press conference that “Kovacs’s goal is to work with all countries in the world” and that the dialogue will continue with Beijing. “Our goal is to get two billion doses of the vaccine by the end of 2021. We were encouraged to see a large number of countries join the Kovacs mechanism,” World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom told the media. Ghebreyesus. (AFP)


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