The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has allocated additional USD 3 million to support Georgia’s response to COVID-19 pandemic, Kelly Degnan, the U.S. Ambassador to Georgia stated in a video address released on May 8.
The Ambassador also announced that U.S. Department of Agriculture will donate an additional 27,000 tons of “high-quality” U.S. wheat to support Georgia during the public health emergency.
CDC’s financial assistance will be aimed at beefing up country’s healthcare capacity, noted the Ambassador. She said that, since January, CDC has aided Georgian healthcare system through various targeted programs:
- training healthcare workers on the proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE), infection prevention and control, and contact tracing of suspected cases of the novel coronavirus;
- providing technical assistance on patient management and flow systems to mitigate the spread of the virus in hospital settings;
- training field epidemiologists and equipping them with necessary skills to collect, analyze and interpret COVID-19 data.
Ambassador Degnan highlighted that the additional funding comes after CDC’s decade-long partnership with Georgia, which covered various public health programs, such as “Hepatitis C Elimination Program , the Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program, and supporting the Richard G. Lugar Center,” that provided “quality assurance and control” for laboratories across the country.
The Ambassador thanked Georgia’s health authorities, the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, as well as healthcare personnel for “proactive” efforts and “responsible” handling of the crisis.
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