Can Global Investment Solve Covid-19 Vaccine Access Inequity?

The Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator has launched its strategic plan and budget for the next 12 months, outlining the urgent actions and funding needed to address deep inequities in the Covid-19 response, save millions of lives and end the acute phase of the pandemic.

According to the World Health Organisation, inequitable access to Covid-19 tests, treatments and vaccines is prolonging the pandemic everywhere and risking the emergence of new, more dangerous variants that could evade current tools to fight the disease. So far, only 0.4% of tests and 0.5% of vaccines administered worldwide have been used in low-income countries, despite these countries comprising 9% of the global population.

The new strategic plan, which integrates key findings of the recent Strategic Review, will see the ACT-Accelerator leverage its progress to date, to shift to a more targeted focus on addressing access gaps in underserved countries, delivering vaccines, treatments, tests and personal protective equipment where they're most needed.

As of November 1, 2021, confirmed cases of Covid-19 from 55 African countries reached 8,498,303 while over 117,311,369 vaccinations have been administered across the continent.