Coronavirus: WHO says response to call for US$675 million in funding to battle outbreak is falling short

The World Health Organisation on Thursday chided the international community for not stepping up enough to finance the battle to contain the novel coronavirus that has shut down many parts of China and killed more than 2,000 people.

The United Nations health agency issued a call earlier this month for US$675 million “to implement priority public health measures in support of countries to prepare for and respond to” the spread of the new coronavirus that causes the potentially deadly respiratory illness known as Covid-19.

“Considering the urgency and considering that we’re fighting a very dangerous enemy, we’re surprised that the response is not really something that we would expect,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a press briefing on Thursday from Geneva.

“Because of the serious measures that China is taking, the number of cases in the rest of the world is small, but it doesn’t mean that the small number of cases in the rest of the world will stay the same for long,” Tedros said.

“It wasn’t without reason some couple of weeks ago I said this virus is very dangerous and it’s public enemy No 1,” he added. “But it’s not being treated as such, and one important indicator is the response, especially to financing the response.”