AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE US has announced an additional USD 2.4 million (5.6bn/-), through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help respond to the Covid-19 outbreak in Tanzania.
A press statement issued yesterday by the US Embassy in Dar es Salaam stated that the assistance is for strengthening laboratory capacity for optimal diagnostics, riskcommunications, water and sanitation, the prevention and control of infections, public health messaging and more.
“The support complements the USD 1 million recently announced Covid-19 relief funds, for a total of USD 3.4 million in new resources for Tanzania. In addition, the US government has directed existing USD 1.9 million to address Covid-19 for a total of $5.3 million (12.2 billion Tanzanian shillings),” reads statement in part.
The US has invested more than USD 7.5 billion in Tanzania over the past 20 years, nearly USD 4.9 billion for health.
Since 2009, the United States government has funded more than USD 100 billion in health assistance and nearly USD 70 billion in humanitarian assistance globally.
The US government continues to be the single largest health and humanitarian donor for both long-term development and capacity building efforts with partners, and emergency response efforts in the face of recurrent crises, and it is leading the world’s humanitarian and health assistance response to the Covid- 19 pandemic.
The statement further added that the US continues to demonstrate global leadership in the face of the Covid- 19 pandemic.
“The American people have given more than $10 billion that will benefit the global Covid-19 response, and we continue to ensure that the substantial US funding and scientific efforts on this front remain a central and coordinated part of the worldwide effort against Covid-19,” according to the statement.
The additional US support to Tanzania comes just a day after Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Prof Palamagamba Kabudi announced the European Union and Sweden’s financial support amounting to 155bn/-, aimed at boosting education and health sectors.
According to Prof Kabudi, the support was the outcome of discussions between his office and diplomats from different countries.
“My office has been holding discussions with diplomats from different countries to see how they can support Tanzania amid the coronavirus pandemic,” Prof Kabudi said.
He further explained that the EU agreed to provide 38m US dollars (86.6bn/-) to be spent in different sectors after the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, while Sweden had added a total of 30m US dollars (68.4bn/-) of which 20m US dollars had been added to the education budget and 10m US dollars had been allocated to boost the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF).
