Bill Gates
(Photo : Reuters/Rick Wilking)

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has pledged more than $100 million to help fight the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest private foundation, announced a partnership with Wellcome and Mastercard to donate $125 million to help tackle COVID-19. The money will be used for identifying treatments and manufacturing millions of doses for victims worldwide. 

A project funded by the private foundation has successfully developed at-home testing kits that will be distributed to residents of the Seattle area. 

The project aims to be available beyond Seattle and the United States. 

People who have been exposed, or suspect themselves to have been exposed to the virus, can sign up on an online form to request a kit. Test results are expected to be available within two days. All findings will be shared with local health officials. 

The Gates Foundation is known for helping in fighting diseases and epidemics, as well as assisting local health agencies during outbreaks. 

The Seattle Flu Study, a research project based at the University of Washington, will work on increasing its testing capacity to help health officials understand how coronavirus is spreading through the community. 

Of the $125 million donations, $20 million will go to the World Health Organization(WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is also expected China and other countries heavily affected by the outbreak will receive funding from the Gates Foundation. 

The funds are expected to help build hospitals and other health care facilities in Southern Asian and Africa. It can also help create a brand-new international database of the outbreak, as well as at-home test kits. 

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Amazon Care, a virtual medical clinic for employees, is currently in talks with the Gates Foundation as well as local health agencies in a bid to help deliver at-home testing kits, including a nose swab, to people affected by the coronavirus in the Seattle area.

Seattle has fast become one of the most heavily affected regions for the COVID-19 in the country. King County health officials are reporting over dozens of new cases daily. 

The Amazon Care team is also in talks with other health groups to expand its focus outside of Seattle. 

Amazon Care launched in September 2019 to ensure the delivery of premium health care to their employees and dependents located in the Seattle area. The company has hired many public health experts and doctors, including pulmonologist Dr. Vin Gupta, and clinical operations leader Dr. Kristi Henderson.

The project involves multiple organizations such as the Gates Foundation, UW Medicine, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Seattle's Children's. Funds originally meant for the Seattle Flu Project will be used to fund coronavirus test kits and analysis.

Amazon Care's involvement can speed up the processing of the coronavirus testing kit which is currently being sent out by mail.

More states have begun to embrace the new approach as federal health officers are slwoly allowing more people to fit the criteria of those who should get tested.  

Amazon has also shared its ongoing fight to keep prices for face masks, hand sanitizer, and other basic health care items from skyrocketing. The company said it will remove hundreds of thousands of "high priced offers" and suspend sellers who have committed price gouging on its online market platform.