WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund on Monday said it would provide immediate debt relief to 25 member countries under its Containment and Disaster Relief Trust (CCRT) to allow them to focus more financial resources for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the fund’s board on Monday approved the first batch of countries to receive grants to cover their debt service obligations to the fund for an initial period of six months.

She said the CCRT had around $ 500 million in resources, including new pledges of $ 185 million from Britain, $ 100 million from Japan and undisclosed amounts from China, Netherlands and others. The fund is pushing to increase the amount available to $ 1.4 billion.

About $ 215 million of the total would be used for grants to the first 25 countries over the next six months, with possible extensions of up to two years, an IMF spokeswoman said.

“This provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their debt obligations to the IMF during an initial phase over the next six months and will help them channel more of their scarce financial resources to life-saving emergency medical assistance and other relief efforts, ”Georgieva said in a statement. A declaration.

She urged other donor countries to help replenish CCRT and strengthen the fund’s capacity to provide additional debt service relief for two full years to its poorest member countries.

Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network, a nonprofit group, said the grants would help the poorest members of the IMF, including the Central African Republic, which has only three intensive care unit beds. for a population of 5 million inhabitants.

“It’s a good start, but we need more donors to be able to offer this relief,” he said, adding that the IMF should also consider selling some of its gold reserves, from an estimated value of $ 140 billion, as has been done in past crises. .

An IMF spokesperson said the fund was considering measures that could be taken quickly, but “another sale of gold reserves is currently not on the table.”

The IMF approved changes in March that would allow CCRT to grant up to two years of debt service relief to the fund’s poorest members as they respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

The changes allowed countries to seek help even though the epidemic had not yet had a significant impact.

More than 1.8 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide and 115,242 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

A precursor to CCRT was used for Haiti after the devastating earthquake that hit the island nation in 2010.

Renamed CCRT, it was also used to help countries affected by the 2014 Ebola epidemic.

The first countries to benefit from CCRT debt service relief are Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo and Yemen, the IMF said.