WHO Director-General's
opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 2 July 2021
2 July 2021
This week, WHO hosted a two-day Summit with heads of state, ministers and civil society leaders from Small Island Developing States. The time for lofty words is over, there needs to be concerted action, backed by financial resources to mitigate the consequences of climate change.
The Delta variant is dangerous and is continuing to evolve and mutate, which requires constant evaluation and careful adjustment of the public health response.
There are essentially two ways for countries to push back against new surges. First, public health and social measures. Second, the world must equitably share protective gear, oxygen, tests, treatments and vaccines.
By the end of this September, we’re calling on leaders to vaccinate at least 10% of people in all countries.
New manufacturing hubs – including for mRNA vaccines – are being developed but this could be accelerated by companies openly sharing technology and know-how.
WHO issues Emergency Use Listings for vaccines based on a stringent assessment of safety and efficacy and we expect all countries to recognize and accept those vaccines that WHO has approved.
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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
This week, WHO hosted a two-day Summit with heads of state, ministers and civil society leaders from Small Island Developing States, which focused on building resilient health systems in the face of multiple threats.
Climate crisis, the severe impact of the pandemic on lives and livelihoods, vaccine inequity and the large burden of noncommunicable diseases were discussed and concrete outcomes
developed on how together we can tackle them.
His Excellency Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, addressed the Summit, and I am pleased and honoured he has joined us again today to give his perspectives on the urgent issues at hand.
Your excellency, Prime Minister, you have the floor.
Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda addresses the media.
Thank you Prime Minister, I couldn’t agree more with you about the importance of looking at the multidimensional threats and working together to solve them.
On an almost day-to-day basis we are now seeing the impact of the climate crisis.
Record breaking scorching heatwaves, catastrophic storms and changing weather patterns are impacting food systems, disease dispersion and societies at large.
The time for lofty words is over, there needs to be concerted action, backed by financial
resources to mitigate the consequences of climate change while we work to keep temperatures down and scale green innovations.
In terms of the small islands, their very existence is at risk.
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As the Prime Minister noted, the same is true for vaccine equity in many respects.
Many Small Island Developing States have succeeded in preventing widespread transmission of COVID-19 in their communities.
But the pandemic has hit you hard in other ways, such as declining revenues from tourism, which is affecting your economies significantly.
Compounded by more transmissible variants, like Delta, which is quickly becoming the dominant strain in many countries, we are in a very dangerous period of this pandemic.
In those countries with low vaccination coverage, terrible scenes of hospitals overflowing are again becoming the norm.
But no country is out of the woods yet.
The Delta variant is dangerous and is continuing to evolve and mutate, which requires constant evaluation and careful adjustment of the public health response.
Delta has been detected in at least 98 countries and is spreading quickly in countries with low and high vaccination coverage.
There are essentially two ways for countries to push back against new surges.
Public health and social measures like strong surveillance, strategic testing, early case detection, isolation and clinical care remain critical.
As well as masking, physical distance, avoiding crowded places and keeping indoor areas well ventilated are the basis for the response.
And second, the world must equitably share protective gear, oxygen, tests, treatments and vaccines.
I have urged leaders across the world to work together to ensure that by this time next year, 70%
of all people in every country are vaccinated.
This is the best way to slow the pandemic, save lives, drive a truly global economic recovery and along the way prevent further dangerous variants from getting the upper hand.
By the end of this September, we’re calling on leaders to vaccinate at least 10% of people in all countries.
This would protect health workers and those at most risk, effectively ending the acute stage of the pandemic and saving a lot of lives.
It’s a challenge but we know it’s possible because already three billion vaccines have been distributed.
It is within the collective power of a few countries to step up and ensure that vaccines are shared, manufacturing is increased and that the funds are in places to purchase the tools needed.
There is now some sharing of vaccines happening but it’s still only a trickle, which is being outpaced by variants.
In those countries whose hospitals are filling up, they need vaccines and other health tools right now.
New manufacturing hubs – including for mRNA vaccines – are being developed but this could be accelerated by companies openly sharing technology and know-how.
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In particular, I urge those companies – BioNTech, Pfizer and Moderna – to share their know how so that we can speed up the development of new production.
The sooner we start building more vaccine hubs and upping global vaccine capacity, the sooner we can diminish deadly surges.
This week, the leaders of IMF, World Bank, WTO and WHO met again to look at practical ways to track, coordinate and advance the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries.
Collectively we also made several asks to the G20 to accelerate global efforts to reach our vaccine targets.
Finally, some countries, regions, have launched so called vaccine certificates and I want to make it very clear that it is important that these do not lead to discrimination against those people and countries that have either a lack of vaccines or certain type of vaccine.
As you know WHO issues Emergency Use Listings for vaccines based on a stringent
assessment of safety and efficacy and we expect all countries to recognise and accept those vaccines that WHO has approved.
Again, I want to thank His Excellency Prime Minister Browne for joining us today and now I will pass back to Tarik.
