A US official told a World Health Organisation meeting on Tuesday it would shift its status from observer to participant in a programme to boost Covid-19 testing, diagnostics and vaccines as it joins global efforts to respond to the pandemic.
"We want to underscore the commitment of the United States to multilateralism and our common cause to respond this pandemic and improve global public health," Colin L. McIff, Acting Director at the Office of Global Affairs in the US Department of Health and Human Services, said at a WHO virtual meeting.
The World Health Organisation mission to China to uncover the origins of the coronavirus has failed to identify the animal source, scientists said on Tuesday.https://t.co/UQN9SXYUzB
— News24 (@News24) February 9, 2021
The meeting in Geneva aims to help fill a $27 billion funding gap for the WHO-backed programme, called the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator Facilitation Council, that is aimed at broadening global access to Covid-19 fighting tools.