Ted Chaiban, Global Lead Coordinator for COVID-19 Vaccine Country-Readiness and Delivery told the Security Council, “in 2022, we must take the rapid action needed to accelerate vaccination. The window of opportunity is gradually closing. We risk losing the momentum and failing on vaccine equity.”

Speaking to Council Members via a video link today (11 Apr), Chaiban said, “the COVID-19 vaccine delivery partnership is focused amongst others on 34 countries which were at 10 percent or less, full vaccine coverage and face the biggest challenges to increasing vaccination coverage.”

He continued, “the goal is to vaccinate all adults and adolescents starting with the elderly, health care and other frontline workers and those with underlying health conditions, who are at the highest risk from COVID-19.”

Chaiban also said, “the next six months are critical,” adding that “more than 11.1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered globally, in 124 of the 194 WHO Member States have vaccinated more than 40 percent of their population, in 51 countries have reached more than 70 percent of their population.”

However, he continued, “this is only 11 percent in low income countries. 83 percent of the population in WHO’s Africa region, and 51 percent of its eastern Mediterranean region, which includes Afghanistan, remain unvaccinated.”
The Global Lead Coordinator also said, “in humanitarian settings, from Afghanistan to Yemen, addressing low vaccination coverage rates requires integrating with humanitarian priorities working with humanitarian partners and sustain country by country effort to identify and overcome the primary obstacles to increasing vaccination rates among the populations affected by natural disasters, conflict and socio-economic instability.”

Dr. Esperanza Martinez, at International Committee of the Red Cross also briefed the Council Members via a video link. She said, “health Systems torn apart by conflict are less able to contain the spread of diseases across phone lines and international borders.”

She continued, “Vvaccination and other health activities in such contexts are incredibly difficult to carry out. Furthermore, many people in conflict settings are overlooked in public health responses, including people displaced, detained or living in areas controlled by non-state armed groups.”

Dr. Martinez also said, “the COVID 19 pandemic offers an opportunity to strengthen the health systems in conflict affected countries.”

She explained, “we need to consider how COVID-19 vaccination can be routinized where possible and integrated with other health services that are prioritized in times of conflict.”

Dr. Martinez continued, “this also means that we have to do everything, while we must invest in conflict preparedness and fortify the building blocks of the health system that support immunizations, and which in turn, support the response to all the pre-existing health needs.”

She added,” Critically, this investment can help address renewed outbreaks of other highly contagious and lethal diseases.”
Dr. Emmanuel Ojwang, Health and Nutrition Coordinator at CARE South Sudan briefed Council as well, via a video link. He called on the international community to first, “ensure safe and unhindered humanitarian access to all people in need,” explaining that “this is essential to create the enabling environment for equitable vaccine delivery in conflict, post-conflict and humanitarian settings across Africa and beyond.”

Second, ensure that COVID vaccine costing models and budgets cover all aspects of delivery and reflect the real-world costs of rolling out vaccines to the last mile, Dr. Ojwang said, “this must include investments in frontline health care workers, community outreach, monitoring and logistics.”