UN launches $2 bn global humanitarian response plan to fight virus spread
UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations on Wednesday launched a USD 2 billion global humanitarian response plan to fund the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic in the world's poorest countries, warning that it is threatening the entire human race.
The world faces an unprecedented threat. The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly covered the globe. It has spread suffering, disrupted billions of lives and endangered the global economy. COVID-19 is menacing the whole of humanity and so the whole of humanity must fight back, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said at the launch of the Global Humanitarian Response Plan for COVID19. As all nations struggle to combat Coronavirus, the UN launched the global response plan, an interagency plan which will be coordinated by the UN'S Office for the Coordination of Human- itarian Affairs and brings together existing appeals from the World Health Organisation and other UN partners, and identifies new needs as well.
Today we are launching a USD 2 billion global humanitarian response plan to fund the fight against COVID-19 in the world's poorest countries, Guterres said.
Properly funded, it will save many lives and arm humanitarian agencies and NGOS with laboratory supplies for testing, and with medical equipment to treat the sick while protecting health care workers, the UN Chief said, adding that the plan also includes additional measures to support host communities that continue to generously open their homes and towns to refugees and displaced persons. Guterres joined virtually Under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock, WHO'S Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UNICEF'S Executive Director Henrietta Fore, noted that individual country responses are not going to be enough and even wealthy countries with strong health systems are buckling under the pressure.
With the virus arriving in countries already in the midst of humanitarian crises caused by conflicts, natural disasters and climate change, Guterres said the world must come to the aid of the ultra-vulnerable millions upon millions of people who are least able to protect themselves.