WHO's pandemic project faces cash crunch amid vaccine, oxygen shortages

4/8/2021 7:13

        The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking $11.5 billion in urgent funding to fight the more infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus, a draft report
        seen by Reuters shows, amid worries wealthy nations are partly bypassing its COVID-19 programmes.
        
        A large portion of the cash being requested from the WHO's partners is needed to buy tests, oxygen and face masks in poorer nations, says the document which is expected to be released this week. And a quarter of it would be to buy hundreds of millions of vaccines for them that would otherwise go elsewhere.
        
        The paper, still subject to changes, outlines the results and financial needs of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), the programme co-led by the WHO to distribute fairly COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and tests across the world.