Social media giant Facebook commits $20 million to fight COVID-19 epidemic

In a big statement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook has committed $20 million to fight the Coronavirus outbreak that hit nations globally. In a post on Facebook, the founder of the social networking giant announced that he was working in collaboration with United Nations Foundation and the World Health Organization to start a COVID-19 "Solidarity Response Fund", to which anyone could make a donation.

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Mark Zuckerberg stated that out of the $20 million fund, $10 million would go to the UNF and WHO's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and the other $10 million would go to the CDC Foundation which will launch a Facebook Fundraiser in the coming weeks.

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“Facebook is matching up to $10 million in donations, and 100% of funds will directly support the work to prevent, detect and respond to the outbreak around the world,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on the social media platform on Friday. 

“We’ll also match $10 million for the CDC Foundation, which will launch a fundraiser in the next few weeks focused on combating the outbreak here in the US,” he added.

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Global pandemic 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared coronavirus as a global pandemic after the virus spread to more than 135 countries, resulting in the deaths of more than 5,800 people worldwide. First detected in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province of China, the coronavirus outbreak has disrupted many lives since December 2019. As per reports, the total number of confirmed cases within China has reportedly hit 80,849 and at least 156,930 cases worldwide. According to reports, the death toll in China has also surpassed 3,190 and the National Health Commission also confirmed more than 25 new cases on March 15. The death toll due to the deadly virus across the world also mounted to over 5,839.  

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(With Agency Inputs)