The Disasters Emergency Committee’s coronavirus appeal has raised more than £15m in just over a week.
The DEC, which is a collaboration of 14 major aid charities that coordinates appeals for humanitarian crises, opened the appeal last week with a focus on people living in refugee camps.
It said today that member charities had begun using the funds in countries including Yemen, Syria, Somalia, South Sudan and Afghanistan.
The government has also today pledged a further £5m of match-funding to the appeal, to add to the £5m of match-funding promised when the appeal was opened.
More than £600,000 has been raised for the appeal using the payment provider PayPal, the DEC said.
The DEC said last week that 24 million internally displaced people in countries around the world were facing a deadly threat from Covid-19.
Saleh Saeed, chief executive of the DEC, said: “As ever, people across the country have demonstrated their generosity and compassion. Every donation will give vulnerable families living in the world’s most fragile states the help they urgently need to face the silent threat of coronavirus.”
The appeal is the first for a disaster that has simultaneously affected people in the UK and internationally.