FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 22, 2020
Millions of people in Myanmar benefit from U.S. assistance on COVID-19
YANGON — Millions of people in Myanmar have been able to mitigate or prevent the spread of COVID-19 through health and humanitarian assistance from the United States. This U.S. assistance to Myanmar during the COVID-19 pandemic reflects the long-term U.S. commitment to improving the health of the Myanmar people. The United States is one of the largest bilateral donors to Myanmar’s COVID-19 response.
“Today, I am proud to announce that we will provide an additional $1.95 million in U.S. government assistance through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), bringing the total U.S. government assistance to Myanmar for COVID-19 response to $18.5 million since February 2020,” Chargé d’Affaires George Sibley said. “This assistance is part of our long-term commitment to Myanmar on health,” he added.
The new funding will complement more than $16.5 million in health and humanitarian funding from the U.S. government, including $14.3 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development, also known as USAID, specifically for the people of Myanmar during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Millions of people in Myanmar have benefited directly from U.S. assistance to respond to COVID-19,” USAID Mission Director Teresa McGhie said. “The emphasis is on reaching underserved and vulnerable communities in camps for internally displaced persons, IDPs, ethnic communities, and conflict-affected communities with health services, water and sanitation supplies, and social and protection services.”
Examples of USAID’s support include:
- $6.5 million in USAID assistance through the multi-donor Access to Health fund, which has already supported 350 health facilities and community quarantine centers and facilitated reaching 135,275 people through community-based surveillance work including contact tracing and fever testing.
- Myanmar’s National Health Laboratory tested the first 3,000 samples and tracked COVID-19 suspected and confirmed cases and contacts with USAID support to the WHO allocated in March. This U.S. funding through WHO is also supporting the Ministry of Health and Sports to protect health workers from infection and provide access to information and resources to protect themselves and patients, and to continue delivery of routine critical services.
- With USAID support to UNICEF, more than five million people have received targeted, accurate information on COVID-19. Through UNICEF, USAID supported donations of 29,995 N95 masks for health providers across 195 health facilities in conflict-affected parts of Kachin, Eastern and Northern Shan State, of which over 60 percent were provided to non-government Ethnic and Community Based Health Organizations serving conflict-affected and contested areas.
- More than 1.9 million people received information about how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection in the first two weeks of a nationwide “Protect Together” COVID-19 awareness campaign launched in June. The “Protect Together” campaign uses six different languages to reach communities in Myanmar. This work is supported through USAID’s Breakthrough Action partner in Myanmar, Save the Children.
Regarding the new $1.95 million in funding for Myanmar’s COVID-19 response through US CDC, Director Dr. Mitesh Desai said, “the CDC will continue to support the Ministry of Health and Sports’ field epidemiology training program and will strengthen health workers’ ability to monitor and track diseases. These efforts complement CDC’s ongoing work to help improve the health and well-being of the people of Myanmar.”
For the full remarks as prepared, see CDA remarks in English: (https://go.usa.gov/xfkfy), in Myanmar (https://go.usa.gov/xfkGB), USAID’s remarks in English (https://go.usa.gov/xfkGY), in Myanmar (https://go.usa.gov/xfkGj), CDC’s remarks in English (https://go.usa.gov/xfkGm), in Myanmar (https://go.usa.gov/xfkGV). For a factsheet with more details on U.S. government assistance, see in English (https://go.usa.gov/xfk79) in Myanmar (https://go.usa.gov/xfk7P).
For more information about USAID’s and CDC’s global response to COVID-19, please visit: https://www.usaid.gov/coronavirus-covid-19 and https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/global-covid-19/global-response.html.
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