GENEVA: World Health Organization (WHO) said that it over 31 Billion Dollars are required to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.
Ahead of a major pledging summit, officials of WHO and its partners updated journalists in Geneva on a recently announced initiative to speed up production of these treatments, known as the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator.
“It’s clear that to bring COVID-19 under control and to save lives, we need effective vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics – in unprecedented quantities and at unprecedented speed,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the event.
“Total needs are estimated for low-and-middle-income countries over 12 months for therapeutics and diagnostics, and 18 months for vaccines,” said Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Special Envoy to Mobilise International Economic Support for Continental Fight Against COVID-19.
The organization said $3.4 billion had been contributed to date, leaving a funding gap of $27.9 billion, of which $13.7 billion is “urgently needed”.
ALSO READ: Donald Trump: We are terminating our relationship with World Health Organization
According to the Johns Hopkins University in the United States, COVID-19 has recorded 9.65 million cases worldwide and claimed more than 490,000 lives this year
