Britain Injects £20 Million Into The Africa Anti-COVID 19 Fund
The United Kingdom (UK) has announced a 20 million British Pounds (£20 million) COVID-19 fund for Africa to help the continent fight the deadly COVID-19, which has claimed over 2 900 lives across the continent.
The money is the UK’s contribution towards the African Union (AU)’s new ‘Africa anti-COVID 19 fund’ aimed at tackling coronavirus and saving lives.
The £20 million (slightly over US$24, 5 million) investment makes the UK the largest national donor to the fund, which was announced by Cyril Ramaphosa, Chairperson of the AU and President of South Africa last month.
The British Embassy in Harare said:
The fund will tackle the pandemic by recruiting African health experts and deploying them where they are needed most, strengthening global tracking of the pandemic, combatting potentially harmful misinformation, providing specialist coronavirus training for health workers and making information about the virus more accessible to the public.
Announcing the funding, UK International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan underscored the need for partnership in the battle against COVID-19. She said:
As the UK faces its biggest peacetime challenge in tackling coronavirus, it’s never been more important to work with our partners in Africa to fight disease.
No one is safe until we are all safe and this new funding and support for African leadership will help protect us all – in the UK, Africa and around the world – from further spread of the virus.
