ALI HUSSAIN

ISLAMABAD: The United States has announced to help Pakistan in the fight against coronavirus with an initial US$1 million assistance to bolster the monitoring and to give a rapid response to COVID-19 in the country.

This was announced by US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Alice Wells on Friday over Twitter through a series of tweets, saying that the assistance will be provided through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“The US-Pakistan government partnership is helping fight COVID-19. The US government is responding to COVID-19 in Pakistan with initial US$1 million in USAID Pakistan funding to bolster monitoring and rapid response,” she tweeted.

Wells said that there are more than 100 Pakistani graduates of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the US who are currently investigating COVID-19 cases in Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan.

“And the US and Pakistan are longstanding partners in tackling global health challenges. There are 100+ recent Pakistani graduates of CDCgov’s epidemiology lab training on the ground investigating COVID-19 cases in Gilgit-Baltistan and Punjab right now,” she added.