Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donates $100 million to coronavirus relief

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged about $100 million to help contain the coronavirus outbreak as part of World Health Organization’s request for $675 million in global contributions.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Foundation said the donation would be used in finding a cure for a virus, limit its spread and improve the detection and treatment of patients.

This new donation, which includes the previously pledged $10 million, will also be allocated to public health agencies in China and other countries affected by the outbreak.

“The release of fast and flexible funding is intended to help multilateral organizations and National Public Health authorities rapidly scale up their virus detection capabilities and implement diseases modeling analytics,” the statement reads.

“This is so that they can target resources where they can have the greatest impact in arresting disease spread,” it adds.

WHO plans to use the requested $675 million for a three-month response plan, with $60 million earmarked to fund their operations, while the rest would go to countries with less populations in Africa and South Asia.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of WHO said, “$675 million is a lot of money , but it’s much less than the bill we will face If we don’t invest in preparedness now during the window of opportunity we have.”

Recent death toll of coronavirus has reached 560 with about 28, 000 people affected in more than 25 countries.