Saudi pledges $500 million to combat COVID-19 pandemic

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia has pledged US$500 million to relevant international organisations to support global efforts in combatting the Covid-19 pandemic.

This pledge will support emergency and preparedness response, developing and deploying new diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines, fulfilling unmet needs for international surveillance and coordination, and ensuring sufficient supplies of protective equipment for health workers.

This contribution by the Kingdom comes in response to the commitment made during the Extraordinary G20 Leaders’ Summit, which was called for and chaired by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud last month. G20 Leaders agreed to mobilise the needed funds for international organisations response programmess.

Saudi Arabia will allocate US$150 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI), US$150 million to The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations (GAVI), and US$200 million to other international and regional health organisations and programmes.

Saudi called on all countries, non-governmental organisations, philanthropies, and the private sector to take part in the global efforts to close the required financing gap in order to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which is estimated to be over $8 billion according to the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB).

Source: www.gdnonline.com/Details/800247/Saudi-pledges-$500-million-to-combat-COVID-19-pandemic