The United Nations has released US$15 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to fund essential activities including monitoring the spread, investigating cases and operation of national laboratories towards containing the coronavirus (COVID-19).

The UN fund has been released to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) who are the lead entities in the global efforts towards containing COVID-19.

Mark Lowcock, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said: “We do not yet see evidence that the virus is spreading freely. As long as that’s the case, we still have a chance of containing it.

“But swift and robust action must be taken to detect cases early, isolate and care for patients, and trace contacts. We must act now to stop this virus from putting more lives at risk, said a report made available to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday.

“This grant from the UN’s Emergency Fund will help countries with fragile health systems boost their detection and response operations. It has the potential to save the lives of millions of vulnerable people,” Lowcock said.

The UN announcement came as the World Health Organization (WHO) has upgraded the global risk of the coronavirus outbreak to "very high" – its top level of risk assessment.

“The WHO has said there is still a chance of containing the virus if its chain of transmission is broken,” WHO said.

The WHO has called for US$675 million to fund the fight against coronavirus. There is a window of opportunity to contain the spread of the virus if countries take robust measures to detect cases early, isolate and care for patients and trace contacts, it said.

This is a critical juncture in the outbreak. The focus is on containing COVID-19 by strengthening surveillance, conducting thorough outbreak investigations to identify contacts and applying appropriate measures to prevent further spread.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said: “The potential spread of the virus to countries with weaker health systems is one of our biggest concerns.

“These funds will help support these countries get ready for detecting and isolating cases, protecting their health workers and treating patients with dignity and appropriate care. This will help us save lives and push back the virus”.

Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director, said it is leading on preventative actions in communities across the affected countries with risk communication, providing hygiene and medical kits to schools and health clinics and monitoring the impact of the outbreak to support continuity of care, education and social services.

“At this pivotal moment, every effort must be made to push back against the outbreak. These crucial funds will support our global efforts to bolster weaker health systems and inform children, pregnant women and families about how to protect themselves,” UNICEF Executive Director said.

The sudden increases of cases in Italy, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Korea are deeply concerning. There are now cases linked to Iran in Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and Oman, along with cases linked to Italy in Algeria, Austria, Croatia, Germany, Spain and Switzerland, WHO said.