Shafaq news/ the World Health Organization said on Monday that 172 countries are engaging with the COVAX facility designed to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, , but more funding is needed and countries need now to make binding commitments.

Countries wishing to be part of the global COVAX plan have until August 31 to submit expressions of interest, WHO officials said, with confirmation of intention to join due by September 18, and initial payments due by October 9.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the facility is important to ending the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that,  “By pooling resources and acting in solidarity through the ACT Accelerator and the COVAX Facility, we can ensure that once a vaccine is available for COVID-19, it’s available equitably to all countries.”

The COVAX Facility is a Gavi-coordinated pooled procurement mechanism for new COVID-19 vaccines, through which COVAX will ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for each participating economy, using an allocation framework currently being formulated by WHO.

The COVAX Facility will do this by pooling buying power from participating economies and providing volume guarantees across a range of promising vaccine candidates, allowing those vaccine manufacturers whose expertise is essential to large scale production of the new vaccines, to make early, at-risk investments in manufacturing capacity – providing participating countries and economies with the best chance at rapid access to doses of a successful COVID-19 vaccine.

It currently covers nine candidate COVID-19 vaccines and its aim is to secure supplies of and deliver 2 billion doses across countries that sign up by the end of 2021.