2022 is the year we can end the pandemic – this is how

Life is precious and no one is safe until everyone is safe, write President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa and Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre

Wealthy countries have administered more doses of the Covid vaccine and more tests Рthis inequity is a great injustice (WHO / Blink Media ̱ Fabeha Monir)

2022 is the year we can end this pandemic. To fight Covid-19, all countries need access to life-saving tools – vaccines, tests, treatments, and personal protective equipment. Left to rage anywhere, the virus is a threat everywhere. We invite the world’s leaders to join us in acting urgently because as we’ve seen time and time again throughout this pandemic: no-one is safe until everyone is.

Today we face a stark reality. Wealthy countries have administered 14 times more doses of life-saving vaccines and carried out 80 times more tests than their low-income counterparts.

As a result, lives are being lost due to high hospitalisation rates, with a lack of oxygen, medicines and personal protective equipment (PPE), as countries grapple with fresh waves of infection driven by the Omicron variant. This inequity is one of the greatest injustices of our time.

It needn’t be the case. The Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator is a groundbreaking collaboration of global health agencies, governments, civil society and the private sector. They all came together in 2020 with one goal: to develop and ensure equitable access to the life-saving tools needed to combat Covid-19.

Governments in wealthier nations have spent trillions on their domestic Covid-19 responses and fiscal stimuli. Yet, the ACT-Accelerator budget for 2022 is just $23.4 billion (£17.2 bn) to ensure access to the minimum life-saving vaccines, tests and treatments needed to exit the pandemic everywhere.

The governments of Norway and South Africa have chaired the ACT-Accelerator Facilitation Council since its inception. We stand firm on the principles of global solidarity, advocating for fair access for all because every life is precious, and no one is safe until everyone is safe.

So far, investments in the ACT-Accelerator have funded critical research and development of vaccines, tests and new treatments, with the billionth dose of COVAX vaccine arriving in Rwanda last month.

The partnership has also driven access to rapid testing and treatments through the purchase of more than 200 million diagnostic tests, the advance purchase of 2.9 million doses of dexamethasone, and $734 million (£540 million) worth of PPE. Contributions to ACT-Accelerator’s nine core agencies by more than 60 governments have totaled almost $19 billion (£14 bn) and have been complemented by substantial vaccine dose donations.

But the job is not done, and inequitable access to essential tools for tackling COVID-19 persists. Moreover, as wealthier countries with highly vaccinated populations start to look to life beyond the pandemic, dozens of countries have yet to protect even their healthcare workers. At the same time, the spectre of new variants looms on the horizon, threatening what progress has been made.

2022 is the year that we can break the ongoing inequities and cycle of variants, and end the pandemic. Fully funding the ACT-Accelerator is crucial to this ambition. The need for this funding is why we have just written to more than 50 heads of state and government, asking them to contribute their fair share of financing to ACT-Accelerator agencies to enable the delivery of vaccines, tests, treatments, and PPE to those who need them most.

This investment will help get an additional 600 million vaccine doses to the 91 low-income countries in the COVAX Advance Market Commitment. In addition, the investment will assist 144 countries with access to nearly a billion diagnostic tests. It will also ensure that 120 million people who suffer from Covid in low and lower-middle-income countries have access to treatments and keep 2.7 million health workers safe with PPE.

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Achieving the globally agreed targets for mid-2022 of 70 per cent vaccination coverage in all countries, testing rates of 1 per 1,000 people per day, as well as treating all COVID-19 patients and protecting all healthcare workers will take a monumental push. Achieving this will be tough. But the rewards are worth it. It can prevent $5.3 trillion (£3.9 trillion) of economic losses and avert 5 million deaths.

This is the year we can end this pandemic. But it will take more than words to get us over the line. So, we urge the world’s leaders to join us in acting urgently in solidarity, sharing resources and fulfilling our responsibilities.

In 2022, let’s act for equity and reclaim our lives from this virus.

Cyril Ramaphosa is President of South Africa and Jonas Gahr Støre is Prime Minister of Norway. South Africa and Norway are co-chairs of the ACT-Accelerator Facilitation Council