Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has met (a) the Commonwealth Secretariat and (b) other Commonwealth institutions to discuss health system strengthening as a response to the recent outbreak of coronavirus.

The Secretary of State has not met with the Commonwealth Secretariat or affiliated institutions on this matter. However, the UK recognises that strong health systems are vital to ensuring health security and we support the Commonwealth's ambition to move towards achieving Universal Health Coverage, enabling countries to prevent, detect and respond to global outbreaks like Coronavirus. Commonwealth Health Ministers will next meet in the margins of the World Health Assembly to discuss a range of health matters, including Universal Healthcare Coverage. Separately, the UK is providing £5 million to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to help prevent the spread of this outbreak by helping rapidly identify and care for patients with symptoms, as well as £40 million for research into the virus.