Updates from the field #42: Teams heighten support to help countries battle COVID-19

The UN country teams continue their efforts to provide local and national authorities worldwide support in the fight against COVID-19. Today, we highlight some of those efforts:  

Albania 

Our UN team in Albania continues to help the country address the health emergency, support the most vulnerable groups, while also prioritizing the fight against misinformation. WHO is supporting Albania establish a new modern laboratory with information management system. UNICEF supports the training of health professionals on Infection Prevention and Control protocols developed thanks to a partnership with the Albanian University of Medicine. 

For their part, IOM and UNHCR have ensured for asylum seekers and migrants who are holders of residency permit to access the vaccination service through the same procedure and eligibility criteria as prescribed for Albanian citizens and are working to ensure the inclusion of asylum seekers who have not yet received residence permit. 

Fiji 

The team in Fiji, led by the Resident Coordinator Sanaka Samarasinha, has stepped up its support to authorities by mobilizing resources to ensure there are adequate supplies and equipment for COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, treatment and vaccination. The rollout of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines began in March this year with initial supplies from the COVAX Facility. To date, Fiji has received nearly 60 per cent of their initial COVAX allocation, with the remaining 43,200 doses due to arrive by the end of this month. As of mid-June, nearly 230,000 individuals have received their first dose—and that’s nearly 40 per cent of the target population, mainly older adults and other at-risk groups. This has been possible so far due also to the support of the Governments of Australia and India. 

The UN team, with the technical leadership of WHO and UNICEF, has also provided essential medical and laboratory items, as well as other supplies, to support COVID-19 response efforts. These include COVID-19 vaccines rollout, vaccine procurement and supply operation of COVID-19 vaccine doses, including freight, logistics and storage. Additionally, our UN team also procured and delivered several machines for testing and 2.5 million units of personal protective equipment, 4,600 units of biomedical equipment, nearly 45,000 units of testing equipment, including swabs, and other medical supplies. 

To address the social and economic impacts of the pandemic, our UN team is monitoring the impact on food security, nutrition, and livelihoods across Fiji, especially for those employed in the informal sector who have lost their jobs. We worked with authorities to help businesses reopen and operate safely, trained midwives and provided hotlines to support victims of violence, especially women, a problem that increased during lockdown. 

Mongolia 

The UN team in Mongolia is supporting the Government on the COVID-19 vaccination efforts, prioritizing frontline workers and high-risk groups. To date, Mongolia has received nearly 65,000 doses of Astra Zeneca vaccines and over 120,000 doses of Pfizer/Biontech doses through the COVAX Facility, with UNICEF and WHO playing a crucial role in the logistics and preparation. These COVAX-backed doses contributed to a total of 4.7 million doses of vaccines secured by Mongolia to vaccinate its population over 18 years-of-age—and that’s approximately 2 million people. As of early June, the country has successfully vaccinated 90 per cent of its target population with the first dose, with 65 per cent of the receiving the second dose.  UNICEF is also supporting the construction of a new central storage facility for vaccines, with financial support from the World Bank. UNICEF is also procuring cold chain equipment with funds from the Government of Japan and the World Bank to be used in several parts of the country. For its part, WHO provided technical support, including training on infection prevention control and clinical management and intensive care for COVID-19 patients, also helping plan for the vaccination campaign at national and local levels. 

Namibia 

This month Namibia reported the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases ever registered in the country to date. Partial restrictions have been put in place for 14 days until 30 June, restricting access in local authority areas, public gatherings, curfew, and suspension of face-to-face education. Hospitals are at full capacity. So are intensive care units. Oxygen supply and concentrators remain an ongoing concern. UN Namibia is supporting the country on risk communications and to tackle spreading misinformation, including close collaboration with WHO on social media and radio. Active community engagement is underway to accelerate the uptake of the vaccine. For their part, WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA are providing technical support to the health pillars at the ministry level to manage the situation on the ground. 

Tunisia 

Tunisia has reported the highest COVID-19 mortality rate on the African continent, with 13,700 deaths recorded so far. The worrying trend continues with a test positivity rate above 29 per cent and the health system near saturation. ICU beds remain 85 per cent occupied with a risk of shortage of oxygen. National authorities have decided to put systematically under general lockdown all governorates where the infection rate reaches 400 cases out of every 100,000 residents. Currently, 9 per cent of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine, including 3 per cent of those receiving the second doses. Authorities and the UN team are accelerating the vaccination campaign but are challenged by limited supply. WHO has supported the COVID 19 response with more than US$8 million, comprising of reinforcement of hospital and laboratory equipment, personal protection equipment, diagnosis kits, capacity building and human resources support. WFP has been helping to make the national social protection system more inclusive and shocks sensitive. UNICEF, UNHCR and UNFPA provide communication support with messages adapted to the evolution of the disease to different audiences while UNDP is raising awareness of the prevention of airborne and hand-transmitted diseases. IOM is working with authorities to strengthen the operational systems of entry points with office automation, IT and protection equipment made available to border officials. 

Uganda 

Faced with the recent COVID-19 resurgence in Uganda, our UN team is supporting health authorities to urgently procure 3,000 oxygen cylinders. Nearly 1000 COVID-19 patients were admitted at health care facilities as of yesterday—a strenuous situation for Uganda’s health care system. According to the official records, the number of cases has doubled in the past three weeks, with a nearly 50 per cent increase in the past week alone. And the number of recorded deaths spiked over 300% from May 31 to June 7. WHO has been supporting authorities deliver oxygen flow metres to treatment centres and has deployed a biomedical engineer to support the repair and maintenance of oxygen plants across the country. The UN team, led by Resident Coordinator Rosa Malango, has been engaging with private sector partners to urgently import essential supplies.  

Viet Nam 

Our UN Team in Viet Nam, led by Resident Coordinator Kamal Malhotra, has been stepping up its financial and technical support to authorities’ COVID-19 response, with WHO and UNICEF playing a key role. Earlier this month, UNICEF delivered over 170 refrigerators to safely store vaccines.  As of earlier this month, Viet Nam has received nearly 2.5 million vaccines from the COVAX Facility, in addition to more than 400,000 doses procured by the national authorities. Viet Nam began its vaccination rollout four months ago, targeting frontline healthcare and community workers in the first priority group. To date, over 1.3 billion doses of the vaccine have been administrated, including more than 42,000 people who have received a second dose.   

Zambia 

In Zambia, the UN team, led by Resident Coordinator, Dr. Coumba Mar Gadio, is also supporting authorities to address the multiple impacts of the pandemic, especially this third wave of COVID-19, which brought up the daily positivity rate to 22 per cent. Through the COVAX Facility nearly 230,000 doses of vaccines were delivered to Zambia two months ago, with a new batch expected soon. UNICEF, UNESCO, WHO and UNFPA have helped train health staff to handle misinformation, providing booklets, radios programmes and school material, while also backing messages broadcast via radio and television. More than 3 million personal protective equipment have been distributed, and 9 million people received key messages to prevent the spread of the disease. WHO has developed and distributed messages and materials targeting people living with HIV and the UN team has led a national #MaskUpZambia campaign. For its part, UNICEF procured 620 oxygen concentrators and cylinders and rehabilitated three hospital oxygen plants. Meanwhile, UNFPA supported continuity of essential services, including recruitment of midwives, while the UN Development programme has led an assessment of the social and economic impacts covering 18,000 households. Several UN entities are backing an emergency cash transfer scheme, reaching over 200,000 households, while IOM has strengthened infection prevention and control at borders for the safe resumption of trade and travel. 

COVAX Facility Support

The teams continue to support the vaccination efforts across the globe. Early this month, Albania received its third shipment with more than 40,000 AstraZeneca vaccines – and that’s one third of the total 120,000 doses that Albania will receive through COVAX facility. As of earlier this month, nearly 800,000 had been administered, according to WHO in Albania, with the COVAX-backed vaccines to cover 20 per cent of the population being procured by UNICEF.  

Our UN team serving Eastern Caribbean countries tell us that Antigua and Barbuda received its second shipment this month, with nearly 17,000 COVAX-backed COVID-19 (AstraZeneca) vaccines. This is with procurement and logistical support from PAHO and a global effort with WHO, UNICEF and our COVAX partners. Across the Eastern Caribbean our UN team is working with authorities to support the national vaccination campaigns and continue preventing the spread of COVID-19, while also curbing the spread of misinformation to boost confidence in vaccines through the Secretary-General’s Verified campaign. 

More than 840 thousand doses of Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccines, arrived in Brazil earlier this week through COVAX, complementing the more than 5 million doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine that the country received between March and May. Brazil is also expecting to receive more than 4 million additional AstraZeneca/Oxford doses in the coming weeks, and in the country, nearly 79 million people have been vaccinated, of which 55 million received their first vaccine doses and more than 23 million their second. 

On 23 June, Chad received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine under the COVAX facility. With the 100,620 Pfizer doses that arrived, health authorities will target health care workers, intending Hajj pilgrims, law enforcement personnel, people over 65, and other vulnerable populations. Earlier on 4 June, a nationwide vaccination campaign kicked off in three cities, including the capital city N’Djamena, after 200,000 Sinopharm vaccine doses were delivered bilaterally. For their part, the World Health Organization and UN Children’s Fund provided logistical support for transport to the vaccination sites and supplied computer equipment for electronic data entry of vaccinated people and large tents for hospitals. UN Resident Coordinator Violet Kakyomya reiterated the UN’s commitment to continue providing support for the rollout of Chad's national vaccination campaign in all its components: cold chain, technical support for training, and communication to overcome infodemic and vaccine hesitancy.

Moving to Honduras, the government also received more than 200,000 Pfizer vaccine doses through the COVAX mechanism, bringing the total doses of vaccine that the country has received through three shipments to more than 450 thousand. In addition to the Pfizer vaccine, Honduras previously received more than 237,000 doses of the AstraZeneca jab. With this new shipment, the Honduran Government has begun its fifth vaccination campaign. 

Ecuador received over 330,000 doses of COVAX-backed AstraZeneca vaccines in mid-June. This third shipment brings the total number of COVAX-allocated vaccines in Ecuador to over 750,000, boosting the national vaccination scheme. 

Peru received more than 710,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID19 vaccines through the COVAX mechanism in two separate batches earlier this month. With these shipments, Peru has now received more than 1.6 million doses through COVAX since March. The Resident Coordinator hailed this arrival, highlighting that the COVAX Facility demonstrates that an equitable global response is possible with global solidarity, further committing the full UN team’s support to continue backing the national vaccination plan the authorities’ efforts to address the wider impacts of the pandemic. 

Paraguay received a third batch of over 130,000 AstraZeneca vaccines early this month. Local authorities said that the continuous roll-out of vaccines guarantees the continuity of the national vaccination plan. Also, earlier this month, Colombia received more than 900,000 doses of COVAX-backed AstraZeneca vaccines to be delivered to priority groups receiving their second doses, especially in smaller municipalities outside the capital and main cities. So far, Colombia has received over 3.2 million vaccines through the COVAX-facility, about 20 per cent of its total number of secured vaccines. 

In Uganda, an additional batch of 175,000 COVAX-backed AstraZeneca vaccines landed at the airport this month. These were donated by the Government of France, helping cover a critical gap. As of mid-month, more than 830,000 COVID-19 vaccines were administered across Uganda.