“While our brilliant doctors and nurses fight coronavirus at home, this record British funding will help to find a vaccine for the entire world,” said Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“My call to every G20 country and to governments around the world is to step up and help us defeat this virus,” he added.
Britain’s contribution is the largest by any country to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the international fund to find a vaccine, London said in a press release.
Following Thursday’s virtual summit of G20 leaders, Johnson’s government also unveiled new funding to speed up the production of tests and treatments for the virus.
CEPI has said it needs $2 billion additional funding to develop a vaccine.
According to the latest figures, 463 people have died from the virus in Britain and more than 9,500 people have been infected.
(AFP)
