The United States, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), recently announced an additional $11.4 million in urgent COVID-19 assistance for Bangladesh. This assistance will help Bangladesh battle the current wave of COVID-19 by providing life-saving medical and oxygen supplies, and accelerating national efforts to roll out an effective COVID-19 vaccination campaign.  The additional support will also help Bangladesh strengthen prevention efforts to reduce virus transmission in the community and enhance the quality of treatment and care for the growing numbers of patients across the country. 
 
“This additional donation through the historic American Rescue Plan is part of our ongoing support to help Bangladesh fight COVID-19.  The United States is the largest donor of assistance to Bangladesh’s COVID-19 response.  America has been Bangladesh’s closest partner for the past five decades working to improve public health.  At this particularly challenging moment in the battle against the pandemic, our partnership is more important than ever.” said Ambassador Earl Miller.  
 
With this new funding, the U.S. government has provided a total of over $96 million to support Bangladesh’s response to COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic and continues to work closely with the government and other partners to protect the health of Bangladeshis, a press release said.   
 
Total U.S. COVID-19 assistance includes the donation of 5.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine and capacity-building support towards the rollout of the national vaccination campaign.  The United States has also already committed $2 billion to support the worldwide COVAX vaccination effort, with a pledge of an additional $2 billion, making the United States the world’s largest donor for equitable global COVID-19 vaccine access. 

Through USAID, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States has also provided medical supplies, ventilators, oxygen equipment, pulse oximeters, and millions of pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline workers across Bangladesh.  U.S. assistance has helped save lives and treat individuals infected with COVID-19 by strengthening testing capacity and monitoring, enhancing case management and infection prevention and control practices, improving laboratory and testing capacity, and improving the supply chain and logistics management systems.  U.S. support also focuses on protecting front line workers and increasing the public’s knowledge about COVID-19, including ways to protect themselves.