WHO-led coalition needs $31.3 bln to fight COVID-19

The World Health Organization (WHO)-led coalition fighting the coronavirus needs 31.3 billion U.S. dollars over the next 12 months to develop and roll out tests, treatments and vaccines, it said on Friday. 

Today, 3.4 billion U.S. dollars had been collected, leaving a funding gap of 27.9 billion U.S. dollars, of which 13.7 billion was "urgently needed".

The WHO initiative aims to scale up delivery of 500 million tests and 245 million courses of treatments to low- and middle-income countries by mid-2021, as well as two billion vaccines doses, including one billion to be bought by low- and middle-income countries, by the end of 2021, it said in a statement.

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