The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, has announced that the IMF is releasing a 50 billion USD package to fight the coronavirus epidemic. She added that the money would be available “immediately” and intended for low-income developing countries.

Most of the funds will be interest-free, and the countries that borrow them will not need to have pre-existing programs with the IMF, Georgieva added.

“What we are doing is to review country by country what the financial needs are and commit to those countries to make sure that they are aware of this resource”, said the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, adding that the fund could respond “immediately” to the emerging needs. “I can assure you that we will act very quickly when requests come in”, added she.

Kristalina Georgieva also said that the IMF would like to see the funds provided be used first to support healthcare systems in the countries and then for fiscal stimulus and liquidity programs. The Fund is also working with the World Bank to provide developing countries with medical supplies such as masks and respiratory equipment needed to combat the virus.

Earlier, the World Bank announced a 12 billion USD program to help poorer countries deal with the effects of the epidemic.

“We believe that now is the time to take precautionary measures if the epidemic becomes more severe”, said Kristalina Georgieva.

During an event in Washington earlier on Wednesday, she also said that there has been a general weakening in demand, which goes through distribution channels such as tourism, commodity prices, tighter financial conditions.

The IMF’s decision comes amid coordinated action by central banks globally. The US Federal Reserve announced Tuesday that it has lowered its base rate by 50 basis points, and later on Wednesday the Canadian Central Bank lowered its interest rate by the same amount.

In other news Wednesday, US lawmakers also unveiled a package of nearly 8 billion USD to fight the coronavirus epidemic. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the proposal later Wednesday, after which it will pass through the Senate. US health authorities have announced a total of 129 identified cases of coronavirus in the country.

The proposal will allocate a total of 7.767 billion USD to the epidemic. Most of the money, 85%, will be spent in the country, according to a statement from Senate Lending Committee Chairman Richard Shelby of the Republican Party.