Corona virus prevention face mask protection N95 respirator and medical surgical masks in hospital. Credit: Zuzana Caprnkova/Shutterstock.com
The Biden administration will help set up a clearinghouse of medical supplies with other nations to fight COVID-19, and will expand a “test-to-treat” program in 10 countries to distribute therapeutic drugs, a senior State Department official said.
Countries that back the Global Action Plan on COVID-19 will pledge to create a mechanism to secure and distribute the goods, such as masks and oxygen, and raw materials required to combat a pandemic, according to the official, who asked not to be identified discussing plans that still aren’t public.
U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield is also set to announce that the U.S. Agency for International Development will introduce early testing systems that will help poorer countries identify COVID-19 patients in high-risk populations that are candidates for life-saving drugs, the official said. Those countries are Bangladesh, Botswana, Ivory Coast, El Salvador, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal.
USAID will also expand access to medical oxygen, including training for health workers, in more than a dozen countries, according to the official.
On Friday, the U.S. will co-host a meeting of countries backing the Global Action Plan on COVID-19 at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, where issues such as climate change and combating the pandemic have taken a backseat to geopolitical rivalries and the war in Ukraine.
The meeting is meant to keep up the will and momentum to end the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the official said, helping avoid a scramble for medical gear.
The U.S. is shifting to secure crucial medical supplies and promote COVID-19 therapeutics at a time when vaccine donation efforts have slowed. The Biden administration has cut its target for COVID-19 vaccine donations from 1 billion doses to 600 million, in a sign world demand for the shots has slowed.
Iain Marlow reports for Bloomberg News.
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