The United Nations is will create a global fund to prevent the spread of coronavirus and support the treatment of patients worldwide, Norway said on Monday.

The money will be aimed at helping developing countries with weak health systems in addressing the immediate crisis and tackling the long-term consequences.

Norway, which suggested the fund, has not committed how much money it would put into the initiative, but said it could be similar to a 2014 United Nations Ebola Response Fund.

“We want to make sure that the efforts are as unified as possible and as early as possible so that we can answer up to the demands that countries will have, especially the poorest countries,” said the country’s foreign minister Ine Eriksen Soereide.

The UN could make a formal announcement on the fund this week, said the Norwegian government.

The UN's World Health Organization has already created a coronavirus response fund to which individuals can donate.

Almost 350,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus across the world and more than 15,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In Africa, Angola, Eritrea and Uganda have confirmed their first cases, while Mauritius recorded its first death as the virus spreads across the continent despite efforts by governments to hold it back.

In the Middle East, the first two cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the densely populated Gaza Strip on Sunday.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has called on wealthy countries to not just think about their citizens but help less-prepared nations tackle the crisis.

“A wealthy country must not be convinced that it has only to deal with its own citizens. It’s in the interests of a wealthy country to contribute to a global response because the crisis can come from wherever, at any moment,” he said.