STATEMENT: Coronavirus Global Response pledging summit

Ahead of the launch of the Coronavirus Global Response pledging summit, Lenio Capsaskis, Head of Health Policy at Save the Children UK, said:

"We welcome the UK’s leading role in co-hosting the vital Coronavirus Global Response pledging summit and hope it will be an opportunity to convene support from a wide range of potential donors. Beyond the funding objectives of the summit, more investment is needed to strengthen health systems in poor and fragile countries, which are vital to tackling the direct and indirect impact of the disease, while ensuring continued delivery of essential health  and nutrition services."

"We also commend the Government’s commitment to make coronavirus vaccines and treatments available to all, and hope that this will be followed by an early pledge to Gavi, the Vaccine alliance, to ensure that routine childhood immunisation is maintained during the pandemic and does not disrupt global progress towards defeating other preventable diseases and ending preventable child deaths."