Your trusted source

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for $35 billion more, including $15 billion in the next three months, for the World Health Organization's (WHO) "ACT Accelerator" programme to back vaccines, treatments and diagnostics against Covid-19, TRT reports.

Some $3 billion has been contributed so far, Guterres told an online event on Thursday, calling it "seed funding" that was less than 10 percent of what the WHO wants for the programme, formally called Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.

Financial support has, so far, lagged goals, as nations or governments including the European Union, Britain, Japan and the United States reach bilateral deals for vaccines, prompting Guterres and WHO General Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to plead to nations to contribute.

"We now need $35 billion more to go from 'start up' to 'scale up and impact'," Guterres said in online remarks at a meeting of a council formed to help the ACT Accelerator gain traction. "There is real urgency in these numbers. Without an infusion of $15 billion over the next three months, beginning immediately, we will lose the window of opportunity."