AKIPRESS.COM - Today, the United States—through the United States Agency for International Development—announced $3.7 million (10.5 billion MNT) in additional urgent COVID-19 assistance for Mongolia, the US Embassy said.

This assistance will provide life-saving medicine, testing kits, urgent medical equipment and supplies, oxygen therapy, and personal protective equipment (PPE). USAID will also improve hospital incident management, support field hospitals and laboratory sequencing to identify variants, improve mental health and psychosocial support, design educational TV content for pre-primary children, provide psycho-social and psychological support for children and families, and promote messaging on the importance of vaccinations and how to prevent the spread of COVID.

Deputy Chief of Mission Gregory May made the announcement during a ceremony at the Ministry of Health to officially hand over recently arrived vaccines and ventilator test lungs. “The only way we as a global community can stop this disease is for all of us to work together. As Mongolia’s strategic partner and third neighbor, the United States remains committed to help the people of Mongolia overcome this global pandemic,” he said.

This announcement nearly doubles the more than $4 million (11.4 billion MNT) in COVID-19 assistance the U.S. has already provided to Mongolia since the pandemic first broke out. In addition to providing much needed supplies to support Mongolia’s effort, these funds have and continue to support training Mongolian medical staff on the latest techniques to treat critically ill patients and prevent further spread of the disease.

The United States is also the world’s largest donor to the COVAX Facility and The Global Fund, which provide funding to Mongolia in its efforts to defeat COVID-19.

These efforts build on decades of life-saving work and U.S. leadership in tackling global health crises. Over the past 60 years, USAID has saved millions of lives from diseases such as Ebola, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and now COVID-19.

Diseases know no borders. The U.S. is committed to partnering with Mongolia to end the COVID-19 pandemic, mitigate its devastating social and economic impacts, and build back a world that is even better prepared for future outbreaks.