‘There is hope’ for COVID vaccine by end of 2020: WHO

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has predicted a COVID-19 vaccine could be ready by the end of the year.
 
‘We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we may have a vaccine. There is hope,’ Dr Ghebreyesus said.
 
The WHO chief made the remark at the end of an executive board meeting overnight. He also called for solidarity and a political commitment from world leaders to ensure equal distribution of vaccines when they become available.
 
There are nine experimental vaccines being developed in the COVAX global vaccine facility, which that aims to distribute two billion doses by the end of 2021.
 
Australia has committed $123.2 million to access the purchasing mechanism of COVAX, which would enable the Federal Government to buy COVID-19 vaccine doses as they become available.
 
Under a two-dose regimen, the Government could potentially source vaccines for up to 50% of the Australian population through the agreement, which came on the heels of an $80 million donation to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment in August. 
 
During the executive board meeting, the WHO’s top emergencies expert, Dr Mike Ryan, also estimated around 780 million people are likely to have been infected by coronavirus – far higher than 36 million confirmed cases that have been recorded to date.
 
‘The disease continues to spread. It is on the rise in many parts of the world,’ he said.
 
‘Our current best estimates tell us that about 10% of the global population may have been infected by this virus.’
 
Dr Ryan also said the world is ‘heading into a difficult period’, with Southeast Asia, Europe and the eastern Mediterranean experiencing an uptick in cases.
 
According to Reuters, the two-day board meeting examined the global response to the pandemic and heard calls from countries including Germany, Britain and Australia for reforms to strengthen the UN agency.
 
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