The World Health Organisation chief said on Monday there are around seven or eight “top” candidates for a vaccine to combat the novel coronavirus and work on them is being accelerated.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a UN Economic and Social Council video briefing the original thinking two months ago was that it may take 12 to 18 months for a vaccine. But he said an accelerated effort is underway, helped by $8 billion (Dh 29.3 billion) pledged a week ago by leaders from 40 countries, organisations and banks for research, treatment and testing.
He said the $8 billion will not be enough, and additional funds will be needed to speed up the development of a vaccine, but more importantly to produce enough “to make sure that this vaccine reaches everyone — and there’s no one be left behind.”
“We have good candidates now,” Mr Tedros said. “The top ones are around seven, eight. But we have more than a hundred candidates.”
“We are focusing on the few candidates we have which can bring probably better results and accelerating those candidates with better potential,” he said.
Mr Tedros did not identify the top candidates.
Since January, he said, “WHO has been working with thousands of researchers all over the world to accelerate and track vaccine development from developing animal models to clinical trial designs and everything in between.”
Mr Tedros said there is also a consortium of more than 400 scientists involved in vaccine development and diagnostics.
The WHO chief stressed that Covid-19 is “very contagious and it’s a killer,” with over 4 million cases now reported to the WHO and almost 275,000 lives lost.
While new cases are declining in Western Europe, they are increasing in Eastern Europe, Africa, south-east Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and other regions, he said.
Mr Tedros said “the pandemic is teaching us many painful lessons,” especially the importance of having strong national and regional health systems.
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A medical worker wearing personal protective equipment attends to a newborn child of a woman with Covid-19 at the Sancaktepe Martyr Prof Dr Ilhan Varank Training and Research Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, EPA -
About 60,000 people have approached Sancaktepe hospital complaining of Covid-19 symptoms. As many as 12,000 were tested and 2,500 treated. The mortality rate at the hospital is below 1 per cent. EPA -
People wearing protective face masks and gloves shop at a supermarket in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Reuters -
A Saudi man wearing protective gloves buys vegetables at a supermarket in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Reuters -
Dr Wael Abd Elaziz wearing a protective mask places his order at Dawa Pharmacy, the first Egyptian pharmacy using a robotic device that handles prescriptions, in Cairo, Egypt. Reuters -
An employee checks customers' temperature upon their arrival at LC Wakiki store in Tunis, Tunisia. EPA -
A Palestinian hairdresser wearing protective mask works during a free hair-cutting campaign for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. EPA -
Measures taken by the Palestinian Authority amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus prevent hairdressers from opening their barbershops. EPA -
An Iraqi man wearing a protective face mask stands next to a sign reading in Arabic 'Together against Coronavirus, don't kiss, don't shake hands, your smile makes me happy' during the month of Ramadan, in Baghdad, Iraq. EPA -
Customers wearing protective face masks queue outside a Zara store before reopening on the Habib Bourguiba avenue in Tunis, Tunisia. EPA -
A waiter takes an order at an outdoor terrace of a restaurant as Lebanon eases its coronavirus lockdown, and its restaurants struggle to choose between opening with reduced capacity or staying shut, amid an unprecedented economic crisis that has slashed profit and raised cost, in Beirut. Reuters -
Fishermen dangle their lines to catch fish at Beirut's seaside Corniche, as Lebanese authorities warned of a new wave of the coronavirus. Reuters -
A poster of Kuwait's emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah is seen hanging above a closed entrance of the Mubarakiya market in Kuwait City during the 20-day nationwide lockdown. AFP -
A view of a deserted playground near Kuwait Towers during the lockdown in Kuwait city. AFP
“And yet on current trends, more than five billion people will not access these essential services by 2030” — the ability to see a health worker, access essential medicine, and have running water in hospitals, he said.
He stressed that as the response to Covid-19 continues, nations must also lay the foundations for a healthy, safer and fairer world.
“The world spends around $7.5 trillion on health care each year, almost 10 per cent of global GDP, but the best investments are in promoting health and in preventing disease at the primary health care level which will save lives and save money,” Mr Tedros said.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the briefing that all nations are “in it together” but the immediate priority must be the most vulnerable countries and communities.
She called for a new debt relief program for vulnerable countries so their economies can recover.
And she said measures to protect and stimulate the economy, from cash transfers to credits and loans must be targeted at women “who make up the majority of those in the hardest-hit informal economy, and who are at the forefront of the community response”.
The head of the International Labour Organisation said the UN agency estimates the equivalent of 305 million full-time jobs will be lost around the world in the second quarter of this year, which ends on June 30.
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder told the briefing that by comparison, only 22 million full-time jobs were lost immediately when the financial crisis hit in 2008-2009, “so you can see we’re in an entirely different place”.
Mr Ryder said it’s also often forgotten that 60 per cent of the global workforce of 3.3 billion have jobs in the informal economy, most of them women.
He said the ILO estimates that in the first month of the pandemic, with lock-downs and economic shutdowns, “these people have lost on average 60 per cent of their income, their revenues from work.” And they are concentrated in countries with scarce resources and the weakest social protection systems, he said.
Mr Ryder called for international cooperation to help those most in need and for stepped up efforts to keep enterprises alive, retain jobs, maintain the link between enterprises and workers even when they can’t work now.
