By Reena Bhardwaj
Washington [US], Mar 29 : The United States has announced financial assistance of 274 million US Dollars to 64 countries including 2.9 million US Dollars to India to help the countries in their fight against coronavirus. The emergency health and humtarian funding are for 64 of the most at-risk countries facing the threat of a global pandemic.
The US State Department said it is providing 2.9 million US Dollars to help the Indian government prepare laboratory systems, activate case finding and event-based surveillance and support technical experts for response and preparedness and more.
"These new pledges include nearly USD 100 million in emergency health assistance. It also now includes USD 110 million in new international disaster assistance, which together with our emergency health funding, will be provided for up to 64 of the most at-risk countries," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a press briefing.
"This funding is an initial investment, on top of the continuing funding we already provide to multilateral orgzations such as the World Health Orgzation and UNICEF," Pompeo further added.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), there are 918 confirmed cases of coronavirus cases in the country and 19 fatalities have been reported. The coronavirus cases are continuing to surge around the world. There are nearly 600,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the world and the death toll has crossed 27,000.
In addition to this new announcement, on March 6, President Donald Trump signed the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, which includes USD 1.3 billion in additional U.S. foreign assistance to help countries around the world respond to this pandemic.
'With more than USD 1.5 billion in donations and assistance provided by American businesses, NGOs, and charitable orgzations, and the incredible ongoing work of implementing partners overseas, we are truly mobilizing as a nation to confront this deadly virus. We welcome continued, no-strings-attached contributions from other donors to further catalyze global response efforts underway,' Secretary Pompeo told reporters.
'The United States is leading and will continue to lead the effort to combat this dangerous pathogen and its threat to global health and security,' Pompeo said in his concluding remarks.
( With inputs from ANI )