UNITED NATIONS, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations said Tuesday that it is raising funds for the global fight against the coronavirus.

"We know that we will need more funding to deal with the pandemic, and we are working closely with UN member states and the private sector to ensure funding and equipment is available to fight COVID-19, both in member states and among the vulnerability community, such as the refugees and displaced people we help," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

There is a lot of expenses that will be coming, and the world body has to evaluate down the line what further steps are needed to get the needed funding, he said.

"Obviously, we know, at the same time, that governments themselves will be facing economic hardships. There's going to be an economic impact of COVID-19 on many member states, and we're only now just beginning to understand the scale of that," he said. "So, we know that money will be tight, but we are urging all countries to help pool what they can right now to get this pandemic stopped as quickly as possible, because, obviously, the economic benefits of solving this quicker, rather than having it linger on in so many countries, are almost incalculable."