Humanitarian Aid: Coronavirus

(asked on 25th March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent steps her Department is taking to tackle the humanitarian consequences of the covid-13 outbreak.


Answered by
Wendy Morton Portrait
Wendy Morton
This question was answered on 21st April 2020

The UK is helping to lead the global response to COVID-19, working with our international partners to stop its spread. We are using UK aid to its full effect to counter the health, humanitarian, and economic risks and impact of this pandemic in the developing world. The UK has, so far, pledged £744 million of UK aid to help end this pandemic as quickly as possible and tackle its humanitarian consequences.

The UK strongly supports the United Nation’s Global Humanitarian Response Plan to tackle COVID-19. Our latest UK aid funding of £200 million, announced on 12 April, will back humanitarian organisations to help reduce mass infections in developing countries which often lack the healthcare systems to track and halt the virus. This includes £130 million to UN agencies in response to their COVID-19 humanitarian appeals.

By preventing the virus from spreading in the poorest countries we will save lives and reduce the risk of future waves of infection spreading around the world, including to the UK.

Reticulating Splines