(Eagle News)–The United States has approved an additional P269 million in aid to the Philippines in its fight against COVID-19.
In a statement, the US Embassy said with the addition, the total US assistance to the country now amounts to more than P470 million.
According to the US embassy, the newest tranche will “support laboratory and specimen-transport systems and intensify case-finding and disease surveillance.”
It will also assist Filipino and international technical experts in “risk communication, infection prevention and control efforts, handwashing and hygiene promotion, and community-level preparedness and response.”
The US previously announced P203 million in funds to support the Philippine government’s efforts to prepare laboratory systems to combat the virus.
This was apart from a donation of 1,300 cots to the country’s medical facilities.
US aid
According to the embassy, US assistance has supported efforts to augment the Department of Health’s testing capacity by upgrading laboratories, providing laboratory supplies, and strengthening specimen transport systems, thus contributing to an increase in the country’s testing capacity from 200 to approximately 3,000 tests per day.
The embassy also cited USAID’s online learning modules, which it said were “boosting capacities in more than 100 hospitals across the country with the most up-to-date COVID-19 infection prevention and control information and skills.”
“This assistance also helps individuals, families, and frontline community and hospital heath care workers to protect themselves from infection,” the embassy said.
The embassy said USAID is also “supporting DOH communications platforms, including the Healthy Pilipinas Facebook page for accurate COVID-19 information,” and the DOH to “rapidly translate and communicate the latest COVID-19 guidelines and policies for improved implementation of COVID-19 response.”
It said USAID also assisted the DOH in developing a “nationwide commodity and logistics tracking tool that offers real-time data on stores of life-saving COVID-19 commodities, in turn improving the availability and appropriate management and delivery to the areas of greatest need.”
USAID, it added, was expanding “community access to water, sanitation, hygiene services, and commodities to prevent the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.”
The funds also aid Filipino and international technical experts in “data collection to enhance COVID-19 response and preparedness, including support for two surveillance experts who are assisting the DOH Epidemiology Bureau with Analysis and reporting of COVID-19 cases,” the embassy said.
Trump call
The US embassy announcement came days after US President Donald Trump called President Rodrigo Duterte.
Senator Bong Go said the call lasted for 18 minutes.
The Palace said the two leaders agreed to a bilateral cooperation against COVID-19.
Trump also expressed condolences for the deaths of 11 Filipino soldiers in Sulu, the embassy said.
