'Vast global gap' in funds to fight coronavirus, WHO says
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[August 10, 2020]
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - There is a "vast global
gap" between funds needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic and funds
committed, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
said on Monday, and the WHO was only "10% of the way" there.
More than 19.92 million people have been reported to be infected by the
coronavirus globally and 729,883 have died, according to a Reuters
tally.
Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories
since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
"The coming three months present a crucial window of opportunity to
scale out the impact of the ACT accelerator for global impact," Tedros
told a briefing in Geneva, referring to the "Access to COVID-19 Tools".
"However to exploit this window, we have to fundamentally scale up the
way we are funding the ACT Accelerator and prioritise the use of new
tools. There is a vast global gap between our ambition for the ACT
accelerator, and the amount of funds that have been committed."
He said the WHO was only "10% of the way" to funding the billions of
dollars required.
"For the vaccines alone, over $100 billion will be needed," Tedros said.
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![](../images/081020PICS/news_m21.jpg)
Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference in Geneva,
Switzerland January 30, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
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However he said he saw "green shoots of hope".
"It is never too late to turn the pandemic around," Tedros said. The
message is to "suppress, suppress, suppress".
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(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Michael Shields; Writing by Nick
Macfie; Editing by Toby Chopra/Mark Heinrich)
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