The US government has donated personal protective equipment (PPE) for the frontline responders to COVID-19 in the Maldives.
The equipment were handed over by US Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Martin Kelly to Maldivian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Omar Razak. The donation, worth USD 150,000, is representative of the All of America approach of the US to combating the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. With funding from the US Department of Defence, this is the third donation of PPE to the Maldives and the second in the past month which is an initiative designed to bolster partner pandemic response efforts of the country.
At the ceremony, DCM Martin Kelly expressed the US is proud to provide protection for Maldivian healthcare workers as they care for Maldivians suffering from COVID-19, adding the equipment will help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and keep the frontline responders safe. In addition to PPE, the US is funding a USD 2 million tailored package of support for the Maldives that includes helping civil society expand COVID-19-related social protection services, advocate effectively for COVID-19 recovery policies, and provide technical assistance to the government to develop effective economic measures in response to the pandemic.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the US government has announced more than USD 1.2 billion in State Department and US Agency for International Development (USAID) emergency health, humanitarian, economic, and development assistance specifically aimed at helping governments, international organisations, and non-governmental organisations fight the pandemic.
The US has been the world's largest provider of bilateral assistance in health. Since 2009, the American people have generously funded more than USD 100 billion in health assistance and nearly USD 70 billion in humanitarian assistance worldwide.