The US Government grants Morocco MAD 6.6 million to stop further transmission of Covid-19

The United States Government announced, Thursday, that it is providing MAD 6.6 million ($670,000) to help Morocco reduce the spread of Covid-19 from the Emergency Reserve Fund for Contagious Infectious Diseases at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

In a press release sent Thursday to Yabiladi, the US Embassy in Rabat said that USAID is «providing these funds to the World Health Organization (WHO) under the Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) to stop further transmission of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in affected or at-risk countries and to reduce the impact of the outbreak in all countries».

«With longstanding partners like Morocco, we are working together to improve global capacity to contain outbreaks at their source and minimize their impact. These investments – and the U.S.-Morocco partnership – is critical to rapidly and effectively preparing for emerging threats, including the current COVID-19 outbreak», the US ambassador to Morocco David T. Fischer stated.

The fund will help Morocco prepare laboratories for «large-scale testing for COVID-19, implement a public-health emergency plan for points of entry, activate case-finding and event-based surveillance for influenza-like illnesses, train and equip rapid-response teams, investigate cases and trace the contacts of infected persons, and adapt training materials for health workers on COVID-19», it concluded.