World Health Organisation (WHO) and its COVAX partners plan to vaccinate 10 percent of the population in all countries worldwide by September, as well as to vaccinate 30 percent and up to 40 percent of the world population by the end of 2021, according to the WHO's Director-General Tedros Adhanom. Adhanom made his statements during a joint press briefing, held on Tuesday, with leaders of the International Monetary Fund (IMF); World Bank Group (WBG) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) in order to urge all governments to contribute to financing a $50 billion roadmap that aims to accelerate the vaccine roll out. The roadmap was designed by the IMF. On her side, IMF's Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that ending the pandemic will add $9 trillion to global GDP, 60 percent of which will benefit developing countries and emerging markets, while the remainder 40 percent of this amount will go to developed countries. "Of the $50 billion, there is a strong case for grants of at least $35 billion. 20 governments have sent positive signals, recognising the importance of providing about $22 billion in additional funding for 2021 to the ACT-Accelerator," according to Georgieva. She also noted that about $13 billion is needed to boost vaccine supply in 2022 and scale up testing, therapeutics and surveillance, adding that the remaining $15 billion could come from national governments supported by multilateral development banks, including the World Bank's $12 billion financial facility for vaccinations. WTO's Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that despite the fact that global trade is expected to grow by eight percent in 2021, it needs to be more resilient to recover from the pandemic and that could be achieved through securing vaccines for all in a rapid way. She also added that the WTO is working with the manufactures to provide vaccines, especially for developing countries and low-income economies. WBG's President David Malpass urged developed countries to provide vaccine doses for developing countries and low-income economies to accelerate their recovery, adding that the WB has allocated $12 billion to deploy vaccines in such countries and that such a sum will be increased if needed.
