World Bank grants $1 billion emergency funds for India to fight COVID-19

The World Bank has granted India emergency funding of US$1 billion to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. The virus has so far infected over 2,000 people in the country.

The money says the Bank will be used to support better screening, contact tracing, and laboratory diagnostics, also procure personal protective equipment, and set up new isolation wards.

The World Bank also approved $200 million for Pakistan, $100 million for Afghanistan, $7.3 million for Maldives and $128.6 million for Sri Lanka.

“The World Bank Group is taking broad, fast action to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and we already have health response operations moving forward in over 65 countries,” said the World Bank Group President David Malpass in a statement.

We are working to strengthen (the) developing nations’ ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and shorten the time to economic and social recovery. The poorest and most vulnerable countries will likely be hit the hardest, and our teams around the world remain focused on country-level and regional solutions to address the ongoing crisis. – World Bank Group President David Malpass

The number of officially reported coronavirus cases worldwide has topped the one million mark. This shows a sharp rise in the number of infections and deaths over the past few weeks as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads.

In the past seven days, as many new cases have been diagnosed around the world as in the 86 days previously. The number of reported deaths has doubled since 27 March.

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