UNICEF ensures all countries have COVID-19 vaccine available

UNICEF ensures all countries have COVID-19 vaccine available

Manila, Philippines-UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) leads the procurement and supply of coronavirus disease 2019 vaccinations to ensure access to the first dose when all countries become available Then I announced.

COVID-19 Vaccine As part of the Global Vaccine Program of the Global Access Facility (COVAX Facility), a vaccine procurement and distribution effort involving more than 170 economies could be the largest and fastest vaccine procurement and supply to date. There is a possibility. Vaccine Alliance Gavi.

“This is a full-scale partnership between governments, manufacturers and multilateral partners to continue the high stakes fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Forre on the weekend.

“In our joint pursuit of vaccines, UNICEF leverages our unique strengths in vaccine delivery to ensure safe, quick and equitable access to first doses when available to all countries.”

UNICEF is the largest single vaccine purchaser in the world, procuring over 2 billion vaccines each year on behalf of nearly 100 countries for routine vaccination and outbreak response ..

In collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Revolving Fund, UNICEF is working on behalf of the COVAX Global Vaccine Facility in 92 low-, middle- and low-income countries that provide vaccines to procure and supply COVID-19 vaccines Lead Purchases are supported by the mechanism.

UNICEF has also announced its intention to join the COVAX facility and will also serve as a procurement coordinator to support purchases by 80 high-income countries that finance vaccines from their own budget.

These UNICEF efforts will be carried out in close collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for the Prevention of Epidemics (CEPI), PAHO, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners. Will be opened.

The COVAX facility is open to all countries, and no future country will have access to future vaccines against the coronavirus.

About 28 manufacturers shared their annual COVID-19 vaccine production plan (until 2023) with UNICEF. This is a market valuation, stating that pharmaceutical companies are prepared to collectively produce “unprecedented amounts” of vaccine over the next 1-2 years.

However, manufacturers are investing to support the production of such large doses, inter alia, in successful clinical trials, pre-purchase agreements, funding confirmation, regulatory and regulatory We have shown that the registration route is highly dependent on how streamlined.

Meanwhile, Fortunato dela Peña, Minister of Science and Technology, said his department took over the Department of Health’s (DOH) Web-based disease monitoring tool for use in COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials to be conducted in the following countries: The fourth quarter of this year.

Dela Peña noted that the feasibility analysis of Syndrome Surveillance using the Spatiotemporal Epidemiology Modeler (FASSSTER) for early detection of disease, including the ability to identify hotspots in COVID cases in specific areas, was particularly Vaccine clinical trials in selecting the best areas to recruit volunteer participants.

“In order to evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine, it is necessary to inoculate in areas with high COVID-19 cases or hotspots,” Dela Peña told STAR.

According to him, the monitoring of participants will be facilitated by the FASSSTER system.

DOST-Philippines Council Health Research and Development (PCHRD) and Ateneo Center for Computing Competency and Research (ACCCRe) officially provided the FASSSTER monitoring tool to DOH last Friday to use it in a fight to prevent a pandemic. did.

Dr. Lilibes David, Deputy Secretary of Heath and Infrastructure Development Heath, said the FASSSTER tool will implement five key strategies for DOH containment and ultimately eradication of COVID-19 in pilot use. Have been described as effective – prevention, detection, isolation, treatment, recovery. – Rainier Alan Ronda