The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has proposed $50 billion to speed up vaccinations, boost testing and tracing, and maintain adequate stocks of therapeutics, urging coordinated global action to end the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite stepped-up global efforts, more than a year into the global crisis, "new cases worldwide are higher than ever", IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, chief economist Gita Gopinath and economist Ruchir Agarwal, wrote in a joint blog published on Friday.