China to donate US$20 million to WHO to fight COVID-19

Beijing has decided to donate USD 20 million to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in support of international cooperation over fighting the novel coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 3,600 people and infected over one lakh others worldwide.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, the WHO, under the leadership of Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has played an important role in promoting other countries to strengthen their prevention measures and tackle the epidemic in a scientific and rational way, and in helping relevant countries improve their health system capacity, which has been widely recognised by the international community, Xinhua news agency reported.

China highly appreciates WHO's understanding and support of the country's work in epidemic prevention and control.

Currently, the world is facing an escalating urgency of making global efforts in the joint prevention and control of the COVID-19, as the disease has broke out in multiple places and spread to more countries around the world.

As a response to the WHO's appeal, the donation is practical support for the organisation to continue playing a better coordinating role in the global fight against the epidemic, especially in helping medium and small-sized countries with weak public health systems cement their defence against the outbreak.