Coronavirus - Africa: The United States continues to lead the global response to COVID-19.
M2 PRESSWIRE-June 22, 2020-: Coronavirus - Africa: The United States continues to lead the global response to COVID-19
(C)1994-2020 M2 COMMUNICATIONS
RDATE:20062020
WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America -- The United States continues to lead the global effort to respond to and end the COVID-19 pandemic. Building upon decades of investment in life-saving health and humanitarian assistance, the American people should be proud of the real results we are achieving through our help to nations around the world, which also helps protect the homeland. The U.S. government has so far allocated more than $12 billion that will benefit the global COVID-19 response, and we continue to ensure that the substantial U.S. funding and scientific efforts on this front remain a central and coordinated part of the worldwide effort against the disease. Our efforts are far from over but continue to make a real and lasting impact.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the U.S. Government has announced more than $1.2 billion in State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) emergency health, humanitarian, economic, and development assistance specifically aimed at helping governments, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) fight the pandemic. This funding, provided by Congress, will save lives by improving public health education; protecting healthcare facilities; and increasing laboratory, disease-surveillance, and rapid-response capacity in more than 120 countries.
The United States has mobilized as a nation to make this an impressive global effort. Working with the private sector, we are actively fulfilling President Trump's commitment to provide ventilators to our partners and allies in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Our foreign assistance funding to date for the response to the COVID-19 pandemic now includes more than $200 million specifically for ventilators.
The COVID-19 assistance to-date from the State Department and USAID includes the following:
- Approximately $428 million in emergency health assistance from USAID's Global Health Emergency Reserve Fund for Contagious Infectious-Disease Outbreaks and Global Health Programs account. These funds prioritize interventions to mitigate the pandemic and prepare communities in developing countries affected by and at-risk of COVID-19. This includes funding for ventilators - highly specialized, state-of the art medical equipment used in hospitals and other medical facilities to help support patients who are having trouble breathing. These life-saving devices are compact, and will give recipient countries flexibility in treating patients most seriously affected by advanced COVID-19 symptoms easily and quickly throughout the country. As an added benefit, the ventilators can also be used to treat patients for other respiratory ailments beyond the virus for years to come.
- More than $462 million in humanitarian assistance from USAID's International Disaster Assistance (IDA) account. This assistance supports case-management and keeps essential health care operating; provides risk-communication and community-engagement programs; supports efforts to prevent and control infections; provides safe water and hygiene items; provides emergency food assistance; and strengthens local capacity and coordination by working with existing health structures and with others in the humanitarian community. These funds prioritize populations affected by ongoing humanitarian crises, particularly internally-displaced people (IDPs) and other displaced persons, because of their heightened vulnerability, the elevated risk of severe outbreaks in camps and informal settlements, and anticipated disproportionate mortality in these populations.
- More than $206 million from the Economic Support Fund (ESF). These funds promote American foreign-policy interests by financing shorter-term mitigation efforts and addressing the second-order impacts of the pandemic in the long term, across a variety of sectors. ESF funding is also being used to provide ventilators.
- More than $173 million in humanitarian assistance from the Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA) account, provided through the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. These funds help international organizations and NGO partners address the increased vulnerability created by the pandemic of refugees and host communities as well as among migrants and other vulnerable and conflict-affected people. This includes strengthening local health responses and provision of emergency relief items to vulnerable families.
This new COVID-19 foreign assistance is provided in addition to the more than $100 billion in global health funding and nearly $70 billion in overseas humanitarian assistance provided by the United States in the last decade alone.
These new amounts do not include assistance being provided by other U.S. Government Departments and Agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense (DoD).
In addition to this direct funding from the U.S. Government, our All-of-America approach is helping people around the world to confront the ongoing pandemic. Through the generosity of American private businesses, non-profit groups, charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, and individuals, Americans have now provided more than $4.6 billion in donations and assistance globally for COVID-19 response, more than any other nation.
To meet the most urgent needs, U.S. Government Departments and Agencies are coordinating efforts to prioritize foreign assistance to maximize the potential for impact. The United States is providing the following assistance through the State Department and USAID:
Africa:
- Angola: $570,000 for health assistance is helping provide risk-communications and water and sanitation, as well as to prevent and control infections in key health facilities in Angola. This assistance comes on top of long-term U.S. investments in Angola, which total $1.48 billion over the past 20 years, including over $613 million for health assistance.
- Benin: $1.5 million in health assistance will help Beninois respond to the outbreak by funding the coordination and planning of outbreak-response activities, strengthening surveillance and rapid-response capabilities, and risk-communications and engagement with communities. This assistance joins $1.72 billion in total assistance for Benin over the past 20 years, over $364 million of which was for health.
- Botswana: $1.5 million in health assistance to address the outbreak...
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