The multilateral leaders task force on scaling COVID- 19 tools, comprising the heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank Group, World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) and CEOs of leading vaccine manufacturing companies, have noted that “despite adequate total global vaccine production in the aggregate, the doses are not reaching low and lower middle-income countries in sufficient amounts, resulting in a crisis of vaccine inequity.”
According to a press release by IMF, the task force members recently met to discuss strategies to improve access to COVID- 19 vaccines, especially in low and lower middle-income countries and in Africa, during which “they expressed concerns that without urgent steps, the world is unlikely to achieve the end-2021 target of vaccinating at least 40 per cent of the population in all countries — a critical milestone to end the pandemic and for global economic recovery.”