US announces $2.9 million support to India in its response to Coronavirus

The Donald Trump government through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has announced $2.9 million to support India in its fight against the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19.

In a statement, the US embassy said this builds on a foundation of more than $1.4 billion in health assistance, and nearly $3 billion in total assistance, that the United States has provided to India over the last 20 years.

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Earlier on March 27, the United States had announced $174 million financial assistance to 64 countries including $2.9 million to India to help them combat the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

This is in addition to the $100 million aid announced by the US in February.

The newly announced assistance is part of a larger American global response package across multiple departments and agencies, including the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The funding is for 64 of the most at-risk countries facing the threat of the global pandemic.

The US State Department had said it is providing $2.9 million 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.

“This builds upon the foundation of more than $1.4 billion in health assistance out of the more than $2.8 billion in US assistance for India over the last 20 years,” the State Department had said.

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had an extensive telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump on the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was shared by the PM on Saturday evening via a tweet from his official Twitter handle that read, “Had an extensive telephone conversation with President @realDonaldTrump. We had a good discussion, and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19.”

A total of 4,067 cases of Coronavirus have been reported in India so far. The death toll has jumped to 109 in the country. So far, 291 people have been cured from the disease.

The global tally of confirmed Coronavirus cases has reached 1.27 million and the death toll is inching close to the grim milestone of 70,000 according to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus resource centre.