The World Health Organisation has appointed former Nigerian Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as a Special Envoy of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.<\/p>\n
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced the appointment on Friday, during the launch of the initiative, which he described as \u201ca landmark collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable distribution of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics for COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Okonjo-Iweala was appointed to the role along with British business executive and former CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, Sir Andrew Witty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ACT Accelerator brings together the combined power of several organisations to work with speed and scale,\u201d the WHO DG said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach of us is doing great work, but we cannot work alone. We\u2019re coming together to work in new ways to identify challenges and solutions together.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than two million people have been infected by COVID-19 and more than 190,000 of them have died globally with more than a billion people forced to stay at home as the world battles to curb the spread of the disease which was first reported in December 2019.<\/p>\n
\nI am especially grateful to Sir Andrew Witty and Dr @NOIweala<\/a> for accepting appointments as Special Envoys for the ACT Accelerator. We are facing a common threat, which we can only defeat with a common approach! #COVID19<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) April 24, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n