ADB approves $2m for Pakistan to combat COVID-19

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday accepted a $2 million grant to assist Pakistan’s efforts to fight the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic within the nation.

The grant, financed from the Asia Pacific Catastrophe Response Fund, will assist fund the instant buy of emergency medical provides, private protecting gear, diagnostic and laboratory provides, and different gear.

“ADB acknowledges the extraordinary burden of this pandemic on Pakistan and is dedicated to supporting Pakistan within the combat to regulate COVID-19”, stated ADB Nation Director for Pakistan Xiaohong Yang.

“This grant will assist strengthen COVID-19 detection, enhance an infection prevention and management, and enhance Pakistan’s capability to reply to the pandemic.”

ADB’s help echoes the World Well being Organisation’s (WHO) Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19 and Pakistan’s Nationwide Motion Plan for Coronavirus Illness (COVID-19), which incorporates preventive measures, containment efforts, and therapy of contaminated individuals. Given the urgency of the required assist, ADB will use essentially the most versatile and expeditious approaches to facilitate procurement of the required medical provides and gear.

Final week, Pakistan determined to hunt $3.7 billion extra financing from three multilateral collectors together with one other mortgage of $1.four billion from the Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF) to deal with the challenges being posed by the novel coronavirus outbreak.