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Inequitable access to COVID-19 tools: A snapshot across 503 facilities in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia

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Global Fund
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Introduction

Inequitable access to COVID-19 tools, such as diagnostic tests, treatments (including medical oxygen), vaccines, and personal protective equipment (PPE), is severely hindering the pandemic response in low- and middle-income countries. This inequity is creating a two-track pandemic; while rich countries with high vaccination rates are largely returning to normal life, low- and middle-income countries continue to suffer high death rates and lockdowns, due to shortages of lifesaving tests, treatments and vaccines. Not only is this morally wrong, but this situation also creates the perfect conditions for new variants to emerge, which threaten any global progress and will continue to prolong the pandemic indefinitely.

To end COVID-19, we must ensure equitable access everywhere to the tools to fight the pandemic. Through the Global Fund’s COVID-19 Response Mechanism (C19RM), we have already invested over US$4 billion to support countries to fight COVID-19, adapt HIV, TB and malaria programs, and strengthen health systems and community responses.

Through on-site programmatic spot checks conducted between May and September 2021 in 503 facilities in 33 countries across Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), this snapshot provides an indicative update of countries’ access to COVID-19 diagnostic tools, treatments (including medical oxygen and dexamethasone) and PPE. The programmatic spot checks are conducted at the facility level and monitor service continuity in health facilities. The spot checks included community sites, primary, secondary and tertiary health care facilities in urban and rural areas and covered both public and private sites. Sampling for spot checks was purposive (at least 15 sites per country) and not intended to be nationally representative.