18:24,
YEREVAN, APRIL 15, ARMENPRESS. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and World Health Organization (WHO) handed 150 oxygen concentrators to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and equip the frontline hospitals with essential medical equipment and supplies, ARMENPRESS was informed from the WHO Armenia office.
Oxygen therapy is an essential step for the treatment of COVID-19 patients with low oxygen levels. Due to their mobility and high-efficiency oxygen concentrators are vitally needed in hospitals serving patients with severe cases of COVID-19.
Lynne M. Tracy, U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, Lena Nanushyan, RA Deputy Minister of Health, Egor Zaitsev, the WHO Representative in Armenia and Shombi Sharp, the UN Resident Coordinator visited the National Center of Providing Drugs and Medical Supplies SNCO to hand over the equipment.
“We are grateful for the continuous assistance and highly value the cooperation within the framework of COVID-19 response. Every contribution in the organization of healthcare for COVID-19 patients is important, and at this stage activities, aimed at disease prevention, in particular vaccination, are more important.” said Lena Nanushyan with the hope that the desired result will be reached through vaccination.
“Since the pandemic began, USAID and the broader U.S. government have supported Armenia in its COVID-19 response efforts. Seeing the equipment here today is an example of that collaboration. We are proud to join our efforts with the government and provide emergency funds to UNICEF, WHO, IFRC, and AUA to support Armenia’s response efforts. Over the past year, the U.S. government has provided more than $11 million in assistance to Armenia to combat COVID-19. This includes a recent additional $1 million in funding to provide targeted technical assistance to support and ensure effective implementation of COVID-19 vaccination efforts in Armenia,” said Lynne M. Tracy, U.S. Ambassador to Armenia. “Combining the efforts with our partners, we continue supporting Armenia with a multi-faceted approach to respond to the pandemic. Our activities are aimed at helping strengthen the healthcare system, assisting frontline hospitals to provide adequate care and supporting people who are bravely fighting the virus.” added Egor Zaitsev, the WHO representative in Armenia. The delivery of the shipment is a part of a larger assistance package to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the country that was focused on strengthening 2 main pillars of COVID-19-response: timely and effective testing and management of COVID-19 patients. As a part of the joint project that is coming to its end, USAID and WHO have provided 3 digital portable x-ray units and 3 ultrasound machines, which were distributed to dedicated COVID-19 hospitals to help hundreds of patients. To increase the testing capacity in the country, lab supplies, sample collection and extraction kits for 40,000 PCR tests have been provided to national laboratories. Laboratory supplies included a total of 313,320 pieces of different items, needed for PCR testing such as disposable supplies, testing tubes, micropipettes, and others that were of quite a high deficit because of an extremely high global demand for the COVID-19 critical supplies.
Besides procurement of a large number of critical items, the program was also focused on strengthening case management and laboratory capacities at the national level. Such activities included implementation of external quality evaluation program for all laboratories, carrying out PCR testing; assessment of national and subnational PCR laboratories, using WHO tools and development of a set of recommendations for further strengthening interventions; workshops and seminars for national lab experts on topics of interest, such as maintenance of biosafety cabinets, new SARS COV-2 variants of concern; reinfection and other topics of interest; national-level consultations to ensure rational use of antibiotics during the management of COVID-19 patients; timely translation and adaptation of national guidance on COVID-19 case management to include the latest evidence.