The US government, through its aid agency USAID, has announced an additional grant of USD 3 million to help India combat the coronavirus pandemic. On April 6, the USAID had announced a grant of USD 2.9 million to India to mitigate the spread of the deadly virus. US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster said the additional funding will further support India’s response to COVID-19. “This additional funding to support India in its continuing efforts to combat COVID-19 is yet another example of the strong and enduring partnership between the United States and India,” a release issued by the US Embassy here quoted the envoy as saying.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is one of the leading aid agencies globally. The USAID is providing these funds to the Partnerships for Affordable Healthcare Access and Longevity (PAHAL) project, an innovative financing platform, the release said. To date, USAID has provided USD 5.9 million to assist India in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. This assistance will help India slow the spread of COVID-19, provide care for the affected, disseminate essential public health messages to communities, and strengthen case finding and surveillance, it said.
“Through the PAHAL project, USAID will support the National Health Authority to establish a financing facility that can mobilize resources from the private sector to assist over 20,000 health facilities enrolled under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), India’s health insurance scheme for 500 million poor and vulnerable people,” the release said.
PAHAL (Partnerships for Affordable Healthcare Access and Longevity) is USAID and IPE’s flagship innovative financing platform to promote health financing models and provide catalytic support to social enterprises (IBMs) for improving access to affordable and quality healthcare solutions for the urban poor communities, with a with a focus on Tuberculosis, Maternal and Child Health and WASH.
India had, three weeks ago, cleared the export of 35.82 lakh tablets of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), an anti-malaria drug that had shown some efficacy in managing Covid-19 infections, especially as a prophylactic.
