Covid-19: World Bank approves $1 billion in emergency support for India

In its largest ever health sector support to India, the World Bank’s board of executive directors approved a fast-track $1 billion emergency project for the country to help prevent, detect, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen its public health preparedness.

The global financial institution’s India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project will immediately enable the government to bolster its efforts to limit human-to-human transmission, and be better prepared to respond to emerging disease outbreaks, including transmission between humans and animals, it said in a statement. The World Bank project will also fund the procurement of testing kits, setting up of new isolation wards, buying personal protective equipment, ventilators, and medicines, particularly in district hospitals. Designated infectious disease hospitals will also be scaled up under the project, it added.

Till Thursday, India had a total of 1,860 active coronavirus cases, and recorded 53 deaths from the pandemic, according to data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Globally, the number of confirmed cases stood at 998,047, while 51,335 people had died from the disease, according to data from John Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Centre.

Junaid Ahmad, World Bank’s country director for India, said the operation is expected to enhance surveillance capacities, strengthen diagnostic systems, and expand lab capacity.

“COVID-19 is not only a health challenge. It has deep social and economic implications. In parallel, we are working with equal urgency with government on social protection programs and economic measures that protect the livelihoods of people,” he said.

The World Bank Group has rolled out a $14 billion package to help developing countries fight the new coronavirus through financing, policy advice and technical assistance, it said. In total, the organisation will deploy about $160 billion over the next 15 months to help countries respond to the pandemic and bolster economic recovery.

“The poorest and most vulnerable countries will likely be hit the hardest, and our teams around the world remain focused on country-level and regional solutions to address the ongoing crisis,” said World Bank Group president David Malpass.

Read our full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its impact here.