WHO seeks $1.96 billion for 2021 Strategic Plan for COVID-19 Response

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is seeking nearly $ 2 billion to fund its 2021 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) for COVID-19 response which, was launched on Thursday in Geneva.

The strategy follows the initial plan last year that outlined the path countries should take to suppress transmission of the new coronavirus.

"Fully funding the SPRP is not just an investment in responding to COVID-19, it’s an investment in the global recovery and in building the architecture to prepare for, prevent and mitigate future health emergencies," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking during his routine press conference.

The 2021 plan will have six objectives: suppressing transmission, reducing exposure, countering misinformation and disinformation, protecting vulnerable people, reducing death and illness, and accelerating equitable access to new tools against COVID-19 such as vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.

WHO is looking to raise USD 1.96 billion to fund the SPRP.

Tedros said USD 1.2 billion will go to the agency’s component of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a landmark global collaboration to make these medicines accessible to people everywhere.

Another USD 643 million will go towards supporting people who require humanitarian assistance due to conflict, insecurity or other crises.

The WHO chief also provided details about the first SPRP, which raised USD 1.58 million. Some 90 per cent of the funding was allocated to countries and regions, supporting those on the frontlines of the pandemic.

"It also enabled WHO and our partners to ship millions of tests and items of personal protective equipment, and to support thousands of ICU beds around the world," Tedros said.

The funding was also used to deploy some 191 Emergency Medical Teams, support sero-epidemiological studies in 58 countries, and provide online training that reached nearly five million people.