The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator is going to focus on vaccinating high-risk populations, introducing new treatments, boosting testing and securing sustained access to COVID-19 tools in the next six months.

ACT-A announced its new transition plan at a meeting on Friday as the world moves to long-term COVID-19 control.  

“Recognizing the evolving nature of the COVID-19 virus and pandemic, the plan outlines changes to ACT-A’s set-up and ways of working, to ensure countries continue to have access to COVID-19 tools in the longer term, while maintaining the coalition’s readiness to help address future disease surges,” according to a media release.

“Through 2023, COVAX will continue to support lower-income countries to protect their populations. In parallel, we will be supporting countries to integrate COVID-19 vaccination into routine national immunization programs, while also preparing for surges and other worst-case scenarios,” said Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Developed through a consultative process with ACT-A agencies, donors, industry partners, civil society organizations (CSOs) and Facilitation Council members, the plan summarizes priority areas of focus for the partnership’s pillars, coordination mechanisms and other core functions, and highlights the work to be maintained, transitioned, sunset, or kept on standby. The transition plan supports the work of ACT-A agencies as they evolve the financing, implementation and mainstreaming of their COVID-19 efforts.

The next phase of ACT-A partners’ work will centre on three overarching areas:

• research and development (R&D) and market-shaping activities to ensure a pipeline for new and enhanced COVID-19 tools
•  institutional arrangements for sustained access for all countries to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments, including oxygen
•  in-country work on new product introduction (eg new oral antivirals) and protection of priority populations in support of national and international targets

“As the world moves towards managing COVID-19 over the long-term, ACT-A will continue to support countries by providing access to vaccines, tests, and treatments,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “But as this plan lays out, we still have a lot of work to do to achieve equitable access to these life-saving tools, with health workers and at-risk populations as our top priority.”

Other changes outlined in the plan include the transition to a new ACT-A Tracking and Monitoring Taskforce, co-chaired by senior officials of India and the US, with the political-level Facilitation Council going into ‘standby’ mode, with the capacity to reactivate if needed due to a surge in severe disease.