Press Releases

1. Co-chairs, Dr. Mkhize, Minister of Health, South Africa and Mr. Ulstein, Minister of International Development, Norway, and Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of WHO and other representatives attended the meeting. They confirmed the challenges on the ground and discussed the future strategy of the ACT Accelerator.
2. Minister MOTEGI emphasized the importance of international cooperation in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and achieving universal health coverage. In addition, he announced that Japan will increase its contribution to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment in total 200 million USD. Furthermore, he expressed Japan’s determination to work with the Global Fund on strengthening health systems and with Unitaid on improving access to therapeutics and to tackle COVID-19, hand-in-hand with the international community.

[Note 1]

• Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator
  The ACT Accelerator is an international framework to accelerate the development, manufacture and equitable access to safe, efficient and affordable COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. It was launched in May 2020 by the initiative of 8 countries including Japan, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, at the event: “Coronavirus Global Response” hosted by the European Union.


• Universal Health Coverage (UHC)
  Universal Health Coverage (UHC) means ensuring access to high-quality basic health services for all people whenever they need them throughout their lives without suffering financial hardship.


• COVAX Facility (COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility)
  The COVAX Facility is one of three pillars of the ACT accelerator. It is co-led by Gavi and the Vaccine Alliance (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization). It aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country of the world.