Boris Johnson donates £774m to global fight against Covid-19

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged £774m to the global fight against coronavirus and has been thanked by the EU’s Commission President Ursala von der leyen.

Von der Leyen said that Johnson felt “every emotion in the last month” referencing his fight and recovery against coronavirus.

Johnson said that “no one can succeed alone” in this fight, he made the pledge on Monday as part of a donor to help the EU raise €7.5bn towards coronavirus testing and the prevention of the deadly virus.

The Prime Minister said the “more we pull together” in sharing expertise “the faster our scientists will succeed” in developing a vaccine.

The Prime Minister told the conference, “In our own countries we’ve taken extraordinary measures asking our people to accept sweeping restrictions on their way of life.

“And by doing so we’ve formed a human shield around our health systems enabling our heroic health workers to save many lives, including my own.

“But the truth is that none of us can succeed alone to win this battle. We must work together to build an impregnable shield around all our people and that can only be achieved by developing and mass-producing a vaccine.

“The more we pull together and share our expertise the faster our scientists will succeed.”

On finding a vaccine Johnson said, this is “the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes.

“Countries and pharmaceutical companies will need to work together with an approach that defies the usual ways of operating.

“We’ll need innovative partnerships like the one between AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

“And we’ll need a truly global effort because no one country and no one pharmaceutical company will be able to do this alone.

“The race to discover the vaccine to defeat this virus is not a competition between countries but the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes.

“It’s humanity against this virus. We’re in this together and together we will prevail.”

The French President Emmanuel Macron said his country will contribute €500m to the global fund.

Macron said in the video call hosted by the European Commission, “France will commit an additional €500m for the ACT-A initiative.”