KARACHI:The U.S. government on Thursday presented a mobile biosafety laboratory to the Sindh Department of Health to strengthen capacity of diagnosing COVID-19 and other communicable diseases, especially in Pakistan’s remote locations.
Sindh Minister for Health and Population Welfare Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho and U.S. Consul General Mark Stroh participated in the handover ceremony, along with other health officials.
The state-of-the-art laboratory will improve the accuracy of diagnoses, reduce testing turnaround time, and better protect healthcare workers in the areas where there was limited capacity to monitor and test for potential outbreaks of infectious disease.
According a USCG statement, U.S. Ambassador Donald Blome handed over four mobile laboratories to Pakistan’s National Institute of Health, earlier on July 6 in Islamabad.
CG Stroh expressing pleasure on presenting the laboratory for serving people of Sindh as well as Balochistan said, “This mobile lab will enable the Pakistani government to respond quickly and effectively in hard-to-reach remote areas during emergencies, an outbreak, or an epidemic.”
He commended Pakistan’s health care workers for their effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic and in particular, Sindh’s successful vaccination campaigns. Minister Azra Pechuho expressed gratitude for the U.S. government’s ongoing support through USAID on improving health services in the province, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.
For containing COVID-19 outbreak and saving lives the U.S. had worked with more than 120 countries, including Pakistan by contributing in emergency relief, health systems strengthening, supporting vaccine readiness and distribution, improvement in public health education, and protection of health care workers and facilities, the statement added.
The United States has donated to Pakistan more than 77 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, one million COVID-19 rapid diagnostic tests, and critical health supplies.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to vaccine doses, the U.S. government has provided nearly $70.4 million in direct support and $13.8 million in in-kind support to assist the Pakistani people in the fight against COVID-19.
An additional $20 million in USAID funding is also planned to support vaccination efforts in Pakistan.