By Reuters Staff

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       FILE PHOTO: World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a bilateral meeting with Swiss Interior and Health Minister Alain Berset on the sidelines of the opening of the 74th World Health Assembly at the WHO headquarters, in Geneva, Switzerland May 24, 2021. Laurent Gillieron/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

       ZURICH (Reuters) - The World Health Organization and Norway’s prime minister called on Thursday on G20 leaders meeting in Rome this weekend to use their financial and political power to fund the ACT Accelerator programme’s latest $23.4 billion plan to end COVID-19.

       “I hope and urge that the G20 will make a commitment to end the pandemic,” Jonas Gahr Stoere, prime minister of Norway, which co-chairs the ACT Accelerator’s Facilitation Council which leads fundraising, told a WHO media briefing.

       WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the G20 should fully fund the latest round of the programme which aims to provide vaccines, drugs and tests to the poorest countries until September 2022.

       Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Silke Koltrowitz

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