UK announces £200 million to help prevent second wave of coronavirus cases

In a bid to prevent a second wave of coronavirus infections in the country, the UK government has reportedly pledged a sum of 200 million pounds to the World Health Organisation and other charity organisations. This comes as Britain reported 78, 991 positive cases, 9875 deaths and 344 cases of recovery. Following the announcement, WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lauded the contribution saying that it was a strong statement that COVID-19 was a "global threat that demands a global response." 

The donation also aims at curbing the spread of the infection in poor and vulnerable nations. Speaking to international media, British aid minister Anne Marie Trevelyan said that assisting the poorest nations would eventually result in stopping the COVID-19 infection from returning to the United Kingdom.

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The COVID-19 pandemic is specifically dangerous to counties with “weak health systems”, who were struggling to battle the infection. For example, Bangladesh, with nearly 8,50,000 Rohingya refugees living in filthy camps was struggling to curb the infection from spreading. Meanwhile, in war-torn, Yemen 80 per cent of the population was already in need of humanitarian assistance. According to a statement, the UK government's assistance was aimed at helping countries like these in mitigating extreme conditions. In addition, the fund would also help install new handwashing stations and isolation centres in these countries which would help them identify and treat people with symptoms and stop the human to human transmission.

Bifurcation of the aid 

The aid announced on April 12 includes £130 million for UN agencies, of which £65 million would go to the World Health Organization (WHO) which is coordinating international efforts to end the pandemic sooner. Another £50 million would be given to the new International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement appeals. Lastly, the remaining £20 million would go to NGOs, including UK charities. 

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(Image credit: AP)