Global conference seeks pledges of $8bn to fight Covid-19

Funds are part of global effort to find vaccine against coronavirus

Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel is one of the European leaders promoting the pledging conference. Kay Nietfeld/AP

An online global conference will seek to raise $8 billion on Monday to cover a shortfall in developing and delivering vaccines to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

The conference is intended to start “unprecedented global co-operation” to develop treatments and build the health systems of the weakest nations, the EU said.

It will be jointly hosted by the EU and eight governments including Saudi Arabia, which chairs the G20, and two of the countries worst affected by the pandemic, Italy and the UK.

The money will only cover initial needs for developing vaccines for a virus that is responsible for at least 246,840 deaths worldwide and more than 3.5 million confirmed cases.

“Manufacturing and delivering medicines on a global scale will require resources well above the target,” leaders of the EU, Germany, France, Italy and Norway said in a joint statement.

“This is a defining moment for the global community. By rallying around science and solidarity today we will sow the seeds for greater unity tomorrow."

Saudi Arabia said on Sunday: "The Saudi G20 Presidency is calling on global partners to support this funding campaign to ensure that we can say, for generations to come, that we defeated Covid-19 as a global community."

At the conference, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will call on other countries to step up their efforts and work together on the “most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes”.

Mr Johnson will also confirm the UK’s pledge of £388 million (Dh1.77 billion/US$484.1m) in UK aid funding for research into vaccines, tests and treatments.

That will be part of an existing £744m UK aid commitment to help end the pandemic and support the global economy.

Last month the G20 group of industrialised nations pledged $5 trillion to counter the financial impacts of the pandemic.

While some countries are emerging from weeks of lockdown after closing businesses and limiting social contact, health officials have warned of a looming crisis in some African nations, which are less prepared to deal with the pandemic.

Hospitals will struggle to cope and the consequences could be disastrous, the leaders said.

“In our interconnected world, the global health system is as strong as its weakest part,” they said. “We will need to protect each other to protect ourselves.”

Countries that have successfully reduced the number of new cases and started to ease restrictions still face months of economic turmoil until a vaccine is found that would allow a return to normal work.

This year the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, an independent group set up by the World Health Organisation, said $8bn was the minimum required to cover the shortfall for  developing vaccines.