New York (VNA) ꦑ– Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuchailed the decision to establish a global health security financial intermediary fund initiallyworth 10 billion USD this year to ensure resources for the fight againstthe COVID-19 pandemic while addressing the Global COVID-19 Summit hosted by US President Joe Biden in New York on September 22 (local time).

The "Global COVID-19 Summit: Ending the Pandemic and Building Back Better" was held on the sidelines of the 76th session of the United Nations GeneralAssembly. In hisspeech, President Phuc said in response to the pandemic, protecting people’s lives andhealth is the top priority so it is essential to take drastic actions toearly detect and quickly trace infection cases; promptly quarantine and provide effectivetreatment; improve testing capacity; ensure oxygen, ventilators and medicines;and particularly conduct large-scale vaccinations. Hestressed the need to enhance global cooperation, improve the self-resilience of medicalsystems and develop the medical equipment production and pharmaceuticals industry,especially in developing countries.

President Phuc emphasised that expandingvaccinations in parallel with the effective use of treatment drugs is key to pushingback the epidemic, protecting people's lives, and promoting economic recoveryand development. 

He suggested improving research anddevelopment capacity for vaccine production, adding that Vietnam was ready toparticipate in these efforts.

On this occasion, the President expressed thanks to and highly appreciated therole of the COVAX Facility, and thanked many countries for sharing and donatingvaccines to Vietnam.

He called on the COVAX Facility and othercapable countries to step up efforts to supply vaccines to developing countriesso that at least 70 percent of their population are vaccinated as soon aspossible and the target is expected to be achieved before the session of theUnited Nations General Assembly next year.

💧 President Phuc said that Vietnam is implementing a COVID-19 vaccination rolloutfor all people above the age of 18. Vietnam and member countries of theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have established a COVID-19Response Fund last year and recently decided to use 10.5 million USD from thisfund to buy vaccines for the member states, he said.

Senior leaders at the summit shared evaluations and suggestions in PresidentPhuc's  speech. US President Joe Biden and many other leaders alsounderlined the need for urgent commitments and strong determination from theinternational community to conduct mass vaccinations for all people around theworld. The summit discussed and issued strong commitments by senior leaders, internationalorganisations and the private sector about mass vaccinations across the globe, protectingpeople’s lives and building back global medical security better in the nearfuture. Participants pledgedto ensure that at least 70 percent of the world population in all countries will be fullyvaccinated before the session of the UN General Assembly in September 2022, alllow or lower-middle income countries will have enough access to oxygen, personalprotective suits and effective treatment methods this year and advancedtreatment therapies in 2022. They also committed to guarantee sustainable financial sources for health security by establishing the global health security financial intermediary fund with an initial sum of 10 billion USD in 2021 and agreed to set up the Global Health Threats Council./.