Search for COVID-19 vaccine moving fast - WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) says research to develop vaccines and other treatments to fight the coronavirus - COVID-19 has accelerated at incredible speed.

The organization will this week announce an initiative for the accelerated development and equitable distribution of vaccines.

At a media briefing yesterday, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus said more than 70 countries have joined the institution's trial to accelerate research on effective treatments.

About 20 institutions and companies are racing to develop a vaccine.

The Director-General stressed the importance of equitable distribution of the vaccine when it is available.

In keeping with that commitment, he said a team of “senior people, from the North and South, that will work out the details on how they can accelerate production, but at the same time how they can ensure equitable distribution.”

Stressing the importance of “Solidarity”, he asserted that “when a vaccine or a medicine is ready, we have to be able to deliver it all over the world.”