Popular News
Debt relief for developing countries essential in coronavirus fight: WHO
Irfan Ali
02 April, 2020 05:31
Debt relief for developing countries essential in coronavirus fight, according to World Health Organisation’s DG.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says this while addressing a virtual news conference in Geneva.
He called debt relief essential for developing countries in order to enable them to take care of their people and avoid economic collapse in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.
Tedros also voiced deep concern about the rapid escalation and global spread of COVID-19 cases, which has now reached 205 countries and territories.
Besides WHO, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) backed debt relief to help developing countries cope with the pandemic’s social and economic consequences.
Meanwhile, Tedros also praised India’s $22.6bn economic stimulus plan.
India announced to provide free food rations for 800 million disadvantaged people, cash transfers to 204 million poor women during lockdown.
New Delhi will allso provide free cooking gas for 80 million households for the next three months.
WHO DG said many developing countries will struggle to implement social welfare programmes of this nature.
However, he pointed that debt-relief processes are lengthy.
He said that in the past five weeks there has been a near-exponential growth in the number of new cases.
Moreover, Tedros said the number of deaths has more than doubled in the past week.
He alerted that in the next few days we will reach one million confirmed cases and 50,000 deaths worldwide.
Related News
