WHO: 89 COVID-19 Vaccines Under Development Globally

 

The World Health Organisation (WHO)  Immunisation Team Lead, Dr. Fiona Braka, has said that there are 89 Covid-19 vaccines under development globally. 

Allnews reports that over 3.5 million people have contracted the viral respiratory disease globally. 

The global health agency official made this known during the national daily press briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19. 

The briefing aired on Channels TV was monitored by Allnews on Friday. 

Mrs Braka who was fielding questions from journalists, spoke extensively on how far WHO has gone with the production of vaccines. 

"Researchers around the world are working round the development of vaccines and therapeutics for Covid-19." 

According to her, WHO has various working groups to accelerate various aspects of vaccines development as well as 130 manufacturers and specialists to help speed up the availability of vaccines for Covid-19.

"... And together with global acess and partners, WHO launched the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) accelerator, a global collaboration to accelerate production and access to equitable Covid-19 diagnosis, therapeutics and vaccines." 

"We have a total of 89 vaccines that are in development globally, including seven in clinical evaluation and several therapeutics are in clinical trials," She said. 

The official however reiterated WHO's commitment to ensuring that as medicines and vaccines are developed, there are shared equitably with all countries and people. 

" We do have the solidarity trial that some of you might have heard about. It is an international clinical trial to help find an effective treatment for COVID-19 launched by the WHO and partners. More than a hundred countries have joined the solidarity trial and 1,200 patients have been randomised."

"The first five countries are to evaluate the efficacies of such drugs. Nigeria has also expressed interest in being part of the solidarity trial and plans are underway to start the process in Nigeria.

Mrs Braka explained that the organisation is keen to make sure drugs produced meet safety requirements. 

"Till date we do not have a vaccine but trials are underway in a very accelerated process," she noted. 

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