Vice President Naseem: Must ensure vaccine is universal

The Vice President of Maldives Faisal Naseem on Friday stated that in order to ensure safety for everyone, we need to ensure that vaccines are truly universal.

While speaking at the plenary segment of the high-level discussion held at the United Nations (UN) based on the theme “Galvanising Momentum for Universal Vaccination”, the Vice President stressed the need for the world to commit together to ensure an equitable rollout of the vaccine in order to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

He added that Maldives stands in solidarity with all the countries in the effort to ensure universal vaccination.

In addition to this, the Vice President noted the uneven, unfair and unbalanced pace and reach of COVID-19 vaccines globally, and highlighted the situation in developing and low-income countries, where percentages of the population remain disproportionately unvaccinated.

“We must demonstrate the necessary leadership and political will to ensure that vaccines are truly universal.”

He added that “No one is safe until we are all safe.”

Moreover, he called on the world leaders to treat vaccines as a public good and urged all the countries to support and commit to waiving the vaccine patents – as the World Trade Organization (WTO) proposed in 2020.

“We must also fill a grant funding gap of US$16 billion for ACT Accelerator to fight Covid-19 in low and middle-income countries."

Moreover, the Vice President discussed the fiscal implications borne by developing countries due to the pandemic. He then called on the international financial institutions to work with governments to provide the financial assistance needed for pandemic policy responses.

During the address, he also provided a briefing about the “Covid-19 dhifaau”, the national vaccination programme to the delegation.

In the briefing, he noted that Maldives made tremendous progress in pandemic responses, and credited the national effort and assistance, and generous donations of bilateral partners to the success.

Concluding his remarks, the Vice President called on world leaders to take prudent action to ensure vaccine equity and achieve universal vaccination.