Only a global response is capable of overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, stressed the United Nations, which on Wednesday 25 March launched a humanitarian response plan of 2 billion dollars over 9 months to limit the impact of the coronavirus on the most vulnerable countries in South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia (see EUROPE 12452/8).
All governments are urged to commit to fully support this global humanitarian plan while maintaining funding for existing humanitarian appeals, without which the effort would be counterproductive, the UN warned. $60 million has been released by the United Nations to launch this plan.
“COVID-19 is menacing the whole of humanity - - and so the whole of humanity must fight back. Individual country responses are not going to be enough”, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said via videoconference. “$2 billion is a drop in the ocean compared to the $2 trillion that the United States is injecting into the US economy”, he said.
This plan will be implemented by the UN agencies (UNHCR, Unicef, World Food Programme) with which the EU works, as well as by the humanitarian NGO community.
It will include: - delivering laboratory equipment for tests and medical supplies for treatment; - setting up hand-washing stations in camps and settlements; - launching public information campaigns on how to protect yourself and others from the virus; - establishing airbridges and hubs in Africa, Asia and Latin America to get humanitarian workers and supplies to where they are most needed.
If everyone on the planet wants to be safe, it is in the interest of all to keep people in the most vulnerable countries safe”, said Mark Lowcock, UN Chief of Humanitarian Operations. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)