With the COVID-19 pandemic already affecting 47 Gavi-supported countries, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has already taken new steps to help strengthen the preparedness of health systems in lower-income countries with the full support of its Board.
Gavi will also be working closely with WHO, CEPI, World Bank, UNICEF and other partners to create the optimal conditions for the acceleration of priority candidate vaccines with a focus on access including assuring adequate scale-up of production and delivery to be sure the vaccine gets to where it is needed to stem the pandemic.
“We have already seen the impact COVID-19 can have on health systems in wealthier countries; in countries with already fragile health systems it could be catastrophic,” said Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chair of the Gavi Board. “As has become brutally clear in recent months, this disease doesn’t respect borders, which is why it will take a truly global response to defeat it. Gavi is making funding immediately available for lower-income countries to respond to the crisis. Routine immunisation against other deadly diseases like measles, yellow fever and diphtheria also must continue – we cannot have two global outbreaks on our hands.”
Under the new measures, countries that qualify for Gavi support will be able to quickly reallocate up to 10% of grants extended to them under Gavi’s health system and immunisation strengthening programme to respond to the threat posed by COVID-19. This would allow countries to fill critical gaps in areas such as hygiene and infection control training for health workers, infection control supplies, surveillance and laboratory testing whilst they wait for specific funds being allocated by the global community for the COVID response. Gavi is exploring providing additional flexibility on the reallocation of funds.
Currently, 21 countries have expressed an interest in reallocating resources under this initiative. By allowing funding to be reallocated towards meeting the threat of COVID-19, Gavi is helping countries to reduce the overall burden of the pandemic on their health systems. This aims to reduce the risk that routine immunisations will be disrupted, leading to even more unnecessary loss of life and strain on the health system.
As well as working with international stakeholders and Alliance partners to accelerate and scale up vaccine development and delivery, Board members proposed adopting a country-led approach to start preparing now for deployment of a vaccine once one becomes available. These include working with Alliance partners to ensure availability and ultimately procurement of an adequate supply of vaccines for the world’s poorest countries thanks to Gavi’s market-shaping experience.
Original source: Gavi
Published on 21 March 2020
