WHO issues appeal for $675 million

The World Health Organization on Wednesday called for $675 million (613 million euros) in donations for a plan to fight the novel coronavirus, mainly through investment in countries considered particularly "at risk".

"Today we're launching a strategic preparedness and response plan.... We're requesting $675 million to fund the plan for the next three months," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference in Geneva. "Our message to the international community is invest today or pay more later," Tedros said, adding that the funding appeal was "much less than the bill we will have to pay if we do not invest in preparedness now".

Tedros said $60 million of the funds would be for WHO operations while the remainder would go to countries requiring assistance to guard against the deadly virus.

He said WHO was sending 500,000 masks and 40,000 respirators to 24 countries from its warehouses in Dubai and Accra. Tedros also hailed a $100 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced earlier on Wednesday for virus testing, treatment and vaccine research.

Asked about Britain's call for its nationals to leave China, Tedros said: "That blanket approach may not help. We encourage all countries to make decisions based on evidence."

He said an international expert mission being organised by WHO would be leaving for China "very, very soon". The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged Wednesday to commit up to $100 million for the global response to the novel coronavirus epidemic that has claimed nearly 500 lives.

The funding will be used to strengthen detection, isolation and treatment efforts, the foundation said, including protecting at-risk populations and developing vaccines and diagnostics.

"Multilateral organizations, national governments, the private sector and philanthropies must work together to slow the pace of the outbreak, help countries protect their most vulnerable citizens and accelerate the development of the tools to bring this epidemic under control," said Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman.

The amount includes $10 million previously pledged in late January. The foundation said it would direct $20 million to organizations like the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Protection, the National Health Commission of China and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

A further $20 million would be allocated to help public health authorities in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, regions which have been disproportionately affected by recent epidemics like the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic of 2009.

The foundation also pledged up to $60 million to accelerate the discovery, development and testing of vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for the virus.