The European Union (EU) has allocated €232 million to fight the coronavirus.Part of these funds have already been allocated to different sectors following the coronavirus outbreak all over Europe, while the rest will be released in the next few months.
According to Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, as cases continue to rise it has become critical to boost preparedness in Europe. Calling on the international community to work together, she said the aid package would also support efforts by the World Health Organization.
The ultimate goal was not to just contain the virus in Europe since its spread from China, but to do so globally.The EU funding would be used to help detect and diagnose the disease, care for infected people and prevent further transmission.
At the same time the EU has said it will not, as yet, suspend the Schengen Agreement and introduce border checks. The movement of people and trade is expected to continue as normal. At the time of writing, more than 2 502 people have tested positive for the virus in Italy, some 212 in France, 196 in Germany, 151 in Spain and 37 in Switzerland.
Other countries that have reported cases include Norway, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Iceland, Belgium, San Marino, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Czech Republic, Belarus, Portugal and Romania.
The EU said it had adopted several precautionary measures to address the spread of the virus and was monitoring the situation closely. New EU funding will help detect and diagnose the disease, care for infected people and prevent further transmission at this critical time.
