Nearly three billion of the world's poorest people should receive a temporary basic income to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, says a report released by the UN Development Programme, AFP reports.

As infection numbers spike in developing countries, measures to protect vulnerable populations are “urgently needed”, the report states.

Funding of $199 billion per month would provide 2.7 billion people with a temporary basic income and the “means to buy food and pay for health and education expenses”, it says.