May 4, 2020 UPDATE
Newsroom, 04.05.2020, 21:25
EUROPEAN COMMISSION – The
European Commission on Monday organized an international video-conference aimed
at raising funds to support the development of a vaccine and effective
treatments of the coronavirus. An estimated 7.4 billion euros were raised,
which will go to setting up a world health organization and research networks.
In the opening of the event, the Commission donated 1 billion euros, the same
as Norway, while Germany and France have each contributed 500 million euros. Italy
donated 140 million euros. Canada’s contribution will stand at 850 million
dollars, Saudi Arabia will donate 500 million dollars, 388 million pounds will
be donated by Great Britain while Israel will contribute 60 million dollars.
The United States did not take part in the initiative. Any vaccine against the
coronavirus should be considered a global public product, French President
Emmanuel Macron said. In turn, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres pointed overcoming
the crisis will involve the biggest health effort in world history. Despite the
latest promising progress, many researchers doubt a viable vaccine used for
mass-immunization would be available earlier than next year.
(Translated by V. Palcu)