LONDON (Reuters) – Talks aimed at reaching a global agreement on how to better fight pandemics will be concluded by 2025 or earlier if possible, the World Health Organization said on Saturday.
The WHO’s 194 member states have been negotiating for two years an agreement that would, among other things, improve international coordination and collaboration before and during pandemics.
The WHO had initially aimed for an agreement by this week. It extended the talks after failing to resolve deep divisions between rich and poorer countries on issues like vaccine-sharing and preparedness.
It did, however, reach a parallel deal to update existing legally-binding health rules, known as the International Health Regulations (IHR), which includes a new, tiered alert system for global health emergencies.
“The historic decisions taken today demonstrate a common desire by member states to protect their own people, and the world’s, from the shared risk of public health emergencies and future pandemics,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby in London, Emma Farge in Geneva and Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Paul Simao)
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