Yesterday, the head of the Regional Office for Europe at the World Health Organization urged European countries not to reduce health budgets, at a time when countries in the region are heading towards economic stagnation in the wake of the Corona pandemic.
"At the World Health Organization, we are concerned that countries will deal with this crisis in the same way that they dealt with the recession that occurred 10 years ago," said Hans Cluj, WHO Regional Director for Europe.
He pointed out that in the period from 2008 to 2013, public spending on health decreased per capita in about half of the countries in our region.
The WHO European Region consists of 53 countries.
According to the organization, health needs, which were not met during that period, increased in 19 of the 28 European Union countries.
Cluj stressed, during his weekly online briefing, that the Corona pandemic affected "people most at risk", including those working in informal work, the poor, and single mothers.
The European Region registered the World Health Organization alone, about two million cases of "corona", representing 38% of the global total of cases.
For her part, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged world leaders yesterday to consider providing more support to multilateral organizations, such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization, in order to recover quickly from the Corona virus crisis.
Merkel said during a conference of world leaders, via a television sponsored by the United Nations, that the countries of the world should allocate more funding to the International Monetary Fund to help countries facing financial difficulties in the near term.
"Additional measures may also be considered for the IMF, when it becomes necessary to provide liquidity to the affected countries within a short period of time," Merkel added.
- Merkel urges world leaders to support organizations to quickly recover from the «Corona».