The United States Government has handed over 201,600 doses of pediatric Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to the Government of Lao PDR through the COVAX facility to support the country’s efforts to vaccinate children aged 5-11 against COVID-19.
This is COVAX’s latest effort to close the vaccine equity gap globally and contribute to countries’ economic and social recovery from the pandemic.
Speaking at the handover ceremony in Vientiane today, H.E. Dr. Sanong Thongsana, Vice Minister of Health, thanked Dr. Peter M. Haymond, United States Ambassador to Lao PDR, for the contribution and highlighted the strong diplomatic relations between the two countries. “The arrival of these vaccines from the United States Government underscores the broadening bilateral relations between Lao PDR and the United States across a range of areas, including public health during the COVID-19 pandemic,” remarked the Vice Minister.
Ambassador Haymond congratulated Lao PDR on its success in the fight against COVID-19. “The United States Government is proud to support the Government of Lao PDR with this latest contribution of vaccines, which will help keep school children safe so that they can continue to learn without further disruptions during the new school year,” said Ambassador Haymond. “The United States stands alongside Lao PDR in this important fight and is here to assist Lao PDR to build back better.”
In addition to supporting the Government of Lao PDR with more than 2.9 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, the United States Government, through USAID, the U.S. Centers Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Defense, UNICEF, and WHO, has been working to strengthen Lao PDR's capacity to distribute these vaccines, ensure the safety of health workers by providing personal protective equipment, strengthen disease surveillance in the country, and providing equipment to improve immunization registration and safe vaccine delivery.
Dr. Ying-Ru Lo, WHO Representative to Lao PDR, and Dr. Pia Rebello Britto, UNICEF Representative to Lao PDR, also attended the ceremony.
“The public health crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the lives of families in Lao PDR and the rest of the world. Vaccines remain crucial in addressing these impacts, and will save lives, especially among those most at-risk,” said Dr. Ying-Ru Lo.
All vaccines in use in Lao PDR have been approved by the World Health Organization and Ministry of Health, and are proven safe and effective in protecting people from severe illness due to COVID-19. "Vaccinating children aged 5 and above is our latest collective effort as COVAX supports equitable, full vaccination of all people in Lao PDR, this time with a focus on the younger generations. It is an important step toward preventing the interruption of in-class learning and overcoming the learning losses children have experienced during the pandemic. This donation represents a strong step in vaccine equity, especially for children and adolescents,” explained Dr. Pia Rebello Britto.
COVAX is a partnership co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the World Health Organization (WHO), with UNICEF as the key delivery partner. COVAX works in partnership with the World Bank, civil society organizations, manufacturers, and others. COVAX is part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a ground-breaking global collaboration to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.
Several COVAX partners have been instrumental in promoting COVID-19 vaccine equity in Lao PDR, including Australia, Canada, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Media contacts
Ministry of Health of Lao PDR
Mr. Visith Khamlusa
Director of the Center of Communication and Education for Health
Tel: +856 20 2250 2862
Email: vkhamlusa@yahoo.com
CEPI global press office
Tel: +44 7387 055214
Email: press@cepi.net
Gavi global
Meghana Sharafudeen, Email: msharafudeen@gavi.org
Iryna Mazur imazur, Email: @gavi.org
Evan O'Connell, Email: econnell@gavi.org
Laura Shevlin, Email: lshevlin@gavi.org
UNICEF Lao PDR country office
Ms. Chiara Frisone
OIC Chief of Communication
Tel: +856 021487508
Email: cfrisone@unicef.org
Tabongphet Phouthavong
Communication Specialist, UNICEF Lao PDR
Tel: +856 20 96888890
Email: tphouthavong@unicef.org
WHO Lao PDR country office
Mr. Will Seal
Technical Officer (Communications)
Tel: +856 20 55 510 788
Email: sealw@who.int
WHO Global
Tel: +41 22 791 2222
Email: mediainquiries@who.int
United States Embassy Vientiane
Athit Chanthalath
Tel: +856 20 55552833
Email: AChanthalath@usaid.gov
Notes to Editors
List of donor pledges to the Gavi COVAX AMC is available here.
Interactive funding tracker for the ACT Accelerator, which includes details of funding for COVAX, can be found here.
About COVAX
COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the World Health Organization (WHO) – working in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, UNICEF, the World Bank, and others. It is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.
CEPI is focused on the COVAX vaccine research and development portfolio: investing in R&D across a variety of promising candidates, with the goal to support development of three safe and effective vaccines which can be made available to countries participating in the COVAX Facility. As part of this work, CEPI has secured first right of refusal to potentially over 1 billion doses for the COVAX Facility to a number of candidates, and made strategic investments in vaccine manufacturing, which includes reserving capacity to manufacture doses of COVAX vaccines at a network of facilities, and securing glass vials to hold 2 billion doses of vaccine. CEPI is also investing in the ‘next generation’ of vaccine candidates, which will give the world additional options to control COVID-19 in the future.
Gavi is focused on procurement and delivery for COVAX: coordinating the design, implementation and administration of the COVAX Facility and the Gavi COVAX AMC and working with its Alliance partners UNICEF and WHO, along with governments, on country readiness and delivery. The COVAX Facility is the global pooled procurement mechanism for COVID-19 vaccines through which COVAX will ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for all 190 participating economies, using an allocation framework formulated by WHO. The COVAX Facility will do this by pooling buying power from participating economies and providing volume guarantees across a range of promising vaccine candidates. The Gavi COVAX AMC is the financing mechanism that will support the participation of 92 low- and middle-income countries in the Facility, enabling access to donor-funded doses of safe and effective vaccines. Gavi is fundraising for the COVAX AMC, and funding UNICEF procurement of vaccines as well as partners’ and governments work on readiness and delivery, including support cold chain equipment, technical assistance, syringes, vehicles, and other aspects of the vastly complex logistical operation for delivery. UNICEF and the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) will be acting as procurement coordinators for the COVAX Facility, helping deliver vaccines to COVAX AMC participants and others.
WHO has multiple roles within COVAX: It provides normative guidance on vaccine policy, regulation, safety, R&D, allocation, and country readiness and delivery. Its Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization develops evidence-based immunization policy recommendations. Its Emergency Use Listing (EUL)/prequalification programmes ensure harmonized review and authorization across member states. It provides global coordination and member state support on vaccine safety monitoring. It developed the target product profiles for COVID-19 vaccines and provides R&D technical coordination. WHO leads, along with UNICEF, the support to countries as they prepare to receive and administer vaccines. The Country Readiness and Delivery (CRD) workstream includes Gavi and numerous other partners working at the global, regional, and country-level to provide tools, guidance, monitoring, and on the ground technical assistance for the planning and roll-out of the vaccines. Along with COVAX partners, WHO is also developing a no-fault compensation scheme as part of the time-limited indemnification and liability commitments.
UNICEF is leveraging its experience as the largest single vaccine buyer in the world and working with manufacturers and partners on the procurement of COVID-19 vaccine doses, as well as freight, logistics and storage. UNICEF already procures more than 2 billion doses of vaccines annually for routine immunization and outbreak response on behalf of nearly 100 countries. In collaboration with the PAHO Revolving Fund, UNICEF is leading efforts to procure and supply doses of COVID-19 vaccines for COVAX. In addition, UNICEF, Gavi and WHO are working with governments around the clock to ensure that countries are ready to receive the vaccines, with appropriate cold chain equipment in place and health workers trained to dispense them. UNICEF is also playing a lead role in efforts to foster trust in vaccines, delivering vaccine confidence communications and tracking and addressing misinformation around the world.
About CEPI
CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations, launched at Davos in 2017, to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics. CEPI has moved with great urgency and in coordination with WHO in response to the emergence of COVID-19. CEPI has initiated 11 partnerships to develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus. The programmes are leveraging rapid response platforms already supported by CEPI as well as new partnerships.
Before the emergence of COVID-19, CEPI’s priority diseases included Ebola virus, Lassa virus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, Nipah virus, Rift Valley Fever and Chikungunya virus. CEPI also invested in platform technologies that can be used for rapid vaccine and immunoprophylactic development against unknown pathogens (Disease X).
About Gavi
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. Since its inception in 2000, Gavi has helped to immunise a whole generation – over
822 million children – and prevented more than 14 million deaths, helping to halve child mortality in 73 developing countries. Gavi also plays a key role in improving global health security by supporting health systems as well as funding global
stockpiles for Ebola, cholera, meningitis and yellow fever vaccines. After two decades of progress, Gavi is now focused on protecting the next generation and reaching the unvaccinated children still being left behind, employing innovative finance
and the latest technology – from drones to biometrics – to save millions more lives, prevent outbreaks before they can spread and help countries on the road to self-sufficiency. Learn more at www.gavi.org and
connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
The Vaccine Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health
Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. View the full list of donor governments and other leading organizations that
fund Gavi’s work here.
About WHO
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and
serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
For updates on COVID-19 and public health advice to protect yourself from coronavirus, visit www.who.int and follow WHO on Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest,
Snapchat, YouTube
About UNICEF
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone. For more information about UNICEF and its work for children, visit www.unicef.org. For more information about COVID-19, visit www.unicef.org/coronavirus .
Find out more about UNICEF’s work on the COVID-19 vaccines here, or about UNICEF’s work on immunization here.
Follow UNICEF on Twitter and Facebook.
About the ACT-Accelerator
The Access to COVID-19 Tools ACT-Accelerator, is a new, ground-breaking global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. It was set up in response to a call from G20 leaders in March and launched by the WHO, European Commission, France and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in April 2020.
The ACT-Accelerator is not a decision-making body or a new organisation but works to speed up collaborative efforts among existing organisations to end the pandemic. It is a framework for collaboration that has been designed to bring key players around the table with the goal of ending the pandemic as quickly as possible through the accelerated development, equitable allocation, and scaled up delivery of tests, treatments and vaccines, thereby protecting health systems and restoring societies and economies in the near term. It draws on the experience of leading global health organisations which are tackling the world’s toughest health challenges, and who, by working together, are able to unlock new and more ambitious results against COVID-19. Its members share a commitment to ensure all people have access to all the tools needed to defeat COVID-19 and to work with unprecedented levels of partnership to achieve it.
The ACT-Accelerator has four areas of work: diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines and the health system connector. Cross-cutting all of these is the workstream on Access & Allocation.
About the United States
The United States is the largest contributor to the COVAX Facility. It has already provided $2 billion to COVAX and committed an additional $2 billion. The U.S. has been among the first countries to provide COVID-19 support to Lao PDR. To date, the U.S., through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has contributed nearly $8 million to help Lao PDR control the spread of COVID-19 by providing much needed-medical and laboratory equipment, training thousands of health workers, and vaccination efforts. The United States is also the largest contributor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
In addition to the COVID-19 emergency assistance, the U.S. has also worked in close partnership with Government and people of the Lao PDR on a range of programs to improve health outcomes in the country over the past 20 years, including long-term initiatives to improve nutrition through school feeding, programs to address maternal and child health, assistance for persons with disabilities and efforts to address and prevent infectious diseases. For more information, visit https://la.usembassy.gov/, and follow the U.S. Embassy Vientiane on Facebook.