South Korea pledges $3 million to WHO to battle coronavirus outbreak

South Korea has pledged to give $3 million to the World Health Organisation (WHO) for battling the novel coronavirus which has claimed over 3,800 lives till date. South Korean Foreign Minister Kyung-wha Kang made the pledge during a phone call with the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on March 8.

South Korea has reported 7,478 confirmed cases and 53 deaths due to the novel coronavirus and struggling to contain the deadly infection. Seoul has raised the travel alert across Japan over the continued spread of the novel coronavirus in Japan and its effect on Koreans.

'Activate emergency response mechanisms'

The coronavirus epidemic has become a major concern around the world as the more than 110,000 cases have been confirmed globally. The worst affected countries are China, South Korea, Iran, and Italy with more than 3,800 deaths due to COVID-19. The WHO chief has urged all countries to activate their emergency response mechanisms for COVID-19 and scale them up as needed to mobilize action across government.

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According to the latest report, 23 new deaths in China due to coronavirus infections have been confirmed, taking the total death toll because of the deadly virus to 3,120. While most of the cases are from Hubei province of China and the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, other countries, including the United States, Iran, Italy, and South Korea, have also reported deaths related to COVID-19.

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Earlier, the United Nations released $15 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help fund global efforts to contain the novel coronavirus. The UN funding has been released for the WHO and the UNICEF to help essential activities including monitoring the spread of the virus, investigating cases, and the operation of national laboratories.

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