WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) –The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Tuesday said that US$15 billion in grants would be required this year to help countries, including those in the Caribbean, manage the long term risks of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

“Overall, health security is economic security. As recently as our January World Economic Outlook Update, we’d estimated the cumulative losses from the pandemic to reach US$13.8 trillion,” said Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s first deputy managing director.

“The international community should recognise that its pandemic financing addresses a systemic risk to the global economy. Thus, we are calling for additional funding to fight pandemics and to strengthen health systems. This will require about US$15 billion in grants this year and US$10 billion annually after that. The cost of inaction for all of us is very high. We need to act now,” she added.

Her comments were made as the IMF, in partnership with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the Global Fund, and Wellcome Trust published Tuesday  ‘A Global Strategy to Manage the Long-term Risks of COVID-19’ working paper, which calls for a more comprehensive and integrated pandemic response from the international community.

In the joint paper, the four global organisations assert that ending the pandemic everywhere remains an urgent economic, health, and moral priority for the world.

“It is now clear that COVID-19 is likely to be with us for the long-term. Given the many possible scenarios for the evolution of COVID-19 from benign to severe scenarios, and given the limited resources countries have, we need a new strategy,” said Gopinath.

“Countries need a more comprehensive COVID-19 toolkit for fighting the pandemic that includes vaccines, tests, treatments and bolstering the resilience of health systems so they are in a better position to tackle both COVID-19 and other deadly diseases in a sustainable, effective way,” she added.

Gopinath said together with the partners on the Multilateral Leaders Taskforce and with the ACT Accelerator, the IMF stands ready to help countries meet the challenges of the pandemic and their financing needs, including through Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST).

The executive director of Global Fund, Peter Sands, said the next phase of the fight against COVID-19 will be different.

“We are in for a long fight against a virus that continues to evolve. So we must shift to a more sustainable response that recognises the linkages between responding to COVID-19, tackling the earlier pandemics of HIV, TB and malaria, and preparing for future pandemic threats,” Sands said.

He added: “We should step up investment in systems for health, intentionally maximising the synergies between interventions against existing infectious diseases and initiatives to prevent, detect and respond to future infectious disease outbreaks. Stronger and more resilient systems for health, including community systems, will enable us to protect everyone, everywhere from the deadliest infectious diseases.”