Coronavirus: World Health Organisation forms global vaccine alliance

The EU and African Union were represented but not China or the US

Firefighters wearing protective clothing spray disinfectant along a street as a preventive measure against the spread of the coronavirus in Yangon. AFP

An Egyptian doctor wearing two protective mask checks a patient's lung X-ray at the infectious diseases unit of the Imbaba hospital in the capital Cairo amid the coronavirus crisis. AFP

A specialist wearing protective gear sprays disinfectant while sanitising a playground to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Reuters

A Health worker tends to a patient inside a Covid-19 coronavirus ward that hosts suspected cases in Pikine Hospital in Dakar. As coronavirus cases slowly increase in Senegal, hospitals are preparing to test suspected cases whilst safely treating other patients. AFP

The TCL Chinese Theatre is reflected in the window of the closed variety store Minsio in Hollywood, California during the coronavirus pandemic. Movie theatres and the entertainment world in general is expected to experience massive losses because the pandemic. AFP

Aerial view as a film is projected on a giant screen at a park, so that quarantined people in their apartments watch a movie from home amid the coronavirus pandemic, in Bogota. Colombia extended mandatory preventive measures until at least May 11. AFP

Mexican Isaias Huerta, left, a former wrestler, and his wife Virginia, manufacture masks to contribute to the fight against Covid-19 in Puebla, Mexico. After arenas closed, a former wrestler makes face masks that resemble the typical masks worn by Mexican wrestlers. AFP

People celebrate with Turkish flags on their balconies to mark the National Sovereignty and Children's Day, in Istanbul, as the country is under lockdown to stop the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. AFP

A doctor takes a sample from man for a Covid-19 test during a government-imposed lockdown as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, in Amritsar. AFP

Board Certified Chaplain Bill Simpson prays with a patient under investigation for coronavirus at SSM Health St Anthony Hospital amid the spread of the coronavirus disease, in Shawnee, Oklahoma, US. Reuters

A worker wearing protective clothing sprays disinfectant towards a building in Via Cortina d’Ampezzo in Rome, as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues. Reuters

A passenger waits for their flight schedule at an almost empty departure lounge, at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Indonesia. The Indonesian government has banned commercial air travel from April 24 to June 1, in an effort to prevent people from returning to their hometowns to celebrate Eid al Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. EPA

The World Health Organisation has formed an international alliance to ensure that Covid-19 vaccines and treatments are distributed fairly.

French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are involved in the alliance.
But China, where coronavirus first surfaced, and the US, whose President Donald Trump has said he will stop funding for the WHO, were not represented.
So far, more than 2.7 million have been infected and more than 190,000 people have died in the pandemic.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in an online briefing: "The world needs these tools and it needs them fast. In the past they have not been available to all. That cannot be allowed to happen again.
"This is a landmark collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable distribution of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics for Covid-19.

“Our shared commitment is to ensure all people have access to all the tools to defeat Covid-19.”

Britain on Friday said it would support the landmark push for equal access to treatments for the virus.

The UK also announced it would co-host a Coronavirus Global Response Summit on May 4, aiming to raise £7 billion to develop treatments and tests to help bring the pandemic to an end.

British foreign minister Dominic Raab said the UK was “proud to support the WHO’s Call to Action to bring global health partners together to accelerate progress toward a vaccine”.

Africa is 'vulnerable’

Ms von der Leyen said the objective needed to raise $8.1 billion to ramp up work on prevention, diagnostics and treatment.

“This is a first step only, but more will be needed in the future,” she told the conference.

African Union chairman Cyril Ramaphosa warned the continent was “extremely vulnerable to the ravages of this virus and is in need of support".

UN chief Antonio Guterres said: “We face a global public enemy like no other. A world free of Covid-19 requires the most massive public health effort in history."

He stressed the need to ensure that any diagnostic tests developed to detect the new virus, any drugs produced to treat it, and any vaccine made to prevent it should be provided to all of those in need.

“The world needs the development, production and equitable delivery of safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine, therapeutics and diagnostics," he said.

“Not a vaccine or treatments for one country or one region or one-half of the world, but a vaccine and treatment that are affordable, safe, effective, easily administered and universally available, for everyone, everywhere.”

The UN chief’s vaccine appeal came a day after US President Donald Trump prompted outcry and ridicule with his suggestion that disinfectants be used to treat coronavirus patients.

“Is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?" Mr Trump mused during a televised briefing. “It sounds interesting to me."

As experts – and disinfectant manufacturers – rushed to caution against any such dangerous experiment, the president tried to walk back his comments, saying he had been speaking “sarcastically".

The United States is the hardest-hit country by far in the pandemic, recording 51,017 deaths and more than 890,000 infections.

The world’s biggest economy has been hammered by the pandemic, with 26 million jobs lost since the crisis began, and American leaders are under pressure to find ways to ease social distancing measures.