• 14 May 2020 | Portugal

    Global pledging event raises over €7.4 billion for NOVEL CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 research and development

    World Health Organization

• A pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan, China was first reported to the WHO Country Office in China on 31st December 2019.

• WHO is working 24/7 to analyze data, provide advice, coordinate with partners, help countries prepare, increase supplies and manage expert networks.

• The outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30th January 2020.

• On 11th February 2020, WHO announced a name for the new coronavirus disease: NOVEL CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 .

4th May 2020 

Leaders from 40 countries came together to support the Access to NOVEL CORONAVIRUS COVID-19  Tools (ACT) Accelerator through the NOVEL CORONAVIRUS COVID-19  Global Response International Pledging Event, hosted by the EU Commission. 

During the event, some €7.4 billion was pledged for research and development for NOVEL CORONAVIRUS COVID-19  vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. 

In his address to the pledging event, the WHO Director-General said: 

"The ultimate measure of success will not be how fast we can develop tools – it will be how equally we can distribute them.

None of us can accept a world in which some people are protected while others remain exposed.

This is an opportunity not only to defeat a common enemy, but to forge a common future; a future in which all people enjoy the right to the highest attainable standard of health – and the products that deliver that right. Health for all."

For more information, please visit:  www.who.int/novel coronavirus COVID-19 .