Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to support countries with weaker health systems following the declaration by the World Health Organisation that coronavirus is a global health emergency.

DFID has stepped up support for developing countries following the World Health (WHO) declaration, through an initial £5 million contribution to WHO’s Emergency Flash Appeal and deploying experts to the WHO’s Regional Office for Africa in the Republic of Congo. In addition, DFID Country Offices are in close contact with country partners in preparing for and responding to an outbreak, and we are working alongside the Department for Health and Social Care and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on further research into the virus.

More generally, DFID’s health system strengthening programmes build capability for health security such as disease surveillance and response systems.