Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos Donate $1 Million to Aid in Coronavirus Relief Efforts
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are doing what they can to help their community as coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread across the United States.
The couple have donated $1 million to aid in relief efforts amid the ongoing pandemic, a source tells PEOPLE.
The source says the contribution will be allocated in part to the New York Governor’s Office for the purchase of urgently needed ventilators and additionally towards WIN, an organization running 11 women’s shelters across New York City.
New York has been one of the U.S. states hit the hardest by the ongoing pandemic. According to a New York Times database, the state has at least 4,152 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 29 deaths from the coronavirus-related illness as of Thursday.
Also as of Thursday morning, there have been at least 10,201 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 149 deaths in the U.S.
Ripa, 49, and Consuelos, 48, are not the only celebrity couple to be pitching in to help those who have been affected by the coronavirus.
Earlier this week, Ryan Reynolds announced that he and wife Blake Lively will donate $1 million to two organizations representing food banks across the United States and Canada.
“Covid-19 has brutally impacted older adults and low income families,” Reynolds shared in an Instagram note. “Blake and I are donating $1 million to be split between FEEDING AMERICA and FOOD BANKS CANADA.”
On Tuesday, Ciara and Russell Wilson pledged to donate a million meals to Food LifeLine, a non-profit organization in Seattle serving more than 300 food banks, amid the health crisis.
“We want to encourage everyone out there to join us in whatever way that you can, big or small. Everything makes a difference. Everything that we do together makes a difference,” Ciara said in a video announcement.
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Houston Texans’ JJ Watt and wife Kealia Ohai also recently donated $350,000 to the Houston Food Bank, while Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and fiancé Tom Bernthal launched the COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Feeding Families in partnership with their local food bank to ensure families were being fed during the crisis.
Kristen Bell shared on Wednesday that her family had contributed $150,007.96 to No Kid Hungry, a charitable campaign dedicated to ending child hunger and poverty, as a way to help feed children who are missing meals due to school closures over coronavirus concerns.
The first cases of a mysterious respiratory illness — what is now known as COVID-2019, a form of coronavirus — began in Wuhan, China, in late December. Since then, the virus has spread worldwide, leading the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency, the first since the zika epidemic in 2016.
As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments and visit our coronavirus hub.
