Speeches Shim
COVID-19 is one of the greatest health challenges our world has ever faced. To beat the virus in the United States, we must also fight it abroad. USAID’s work to end the pandemic is keeping Americans safe, saving lives around the world, and rebuilding the U.S. and global economies.
We need to attack this virus globally, not just at home, because it’s in America’s self-interest to do so. The virus knows no boundaries. —President Joe Biden
USAID’s Global Response
COVID-19 knows no borders and no one is safe until everyone is safe. USAID is working around the clock to help save lives and end the pandemic for all. Since the beginning of the pandemic, USAID has supported more than 120 countries to contain and combat the virus. To date, USAID has provided more than $9 billion to intensify the fight against COVID-19 around the world, pave the way to global recovery, and strengthen global health security.
Only through collaboration can we collectively overcome COVID-19. —Administrator Samantha Power
USAID’s Programs
USAID is building on decades of global health leadership combating infectious diseases such as Ebola, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria to now fight COVID-19. USAID programs are helping deliver vaccines and get shots in arms, expand access to COVID-19 testing and treatment, protect and train health workers, deliver life-saving health commodities and equipment, share reliable public health information, and safeguard global health security. Yet USAID is not just fighting the disease—USAID is fighting to secure decades of development progress that the pandemic is unwinding. USAID programs are keeping kids in school, providing emergency food and hygiene assistance, helping people find work, preventing democratic backsliding, addressing gender-based violence, and tackling other devastating impacts of the pandemic.
USAID is committed to building back a better world, one that is better prepared to prevent, detect, and respond to future biological threats, and where all people can live safe, prosperous, and healthy lives. — USAID COVID-19 Task Force Director Jeremy Konyndyk
Resources
- USAID COVID-19 fact sheets
- USAID COVID-19 guidance for implementing partners
- American Rescue Plan
- U.S. Global Response and Recovery Framework
- COVID-19 Safety Plan & Workplace Guidelines (January, 2022)
- CDC COVID-19 information
- Get involved
The spread of COVID-19 has shown that an infectious disease threat anywhere can be a threat everywhere. USAID is dedicated to ending this pandemic for everyone, everywhere.
LATEST UPDATES
USAID Operating Status
Last updated: January 20, 2022
With the delivery of an additional 7,052,760 doses of Pfizer vaccine to Indonesia, the United States has now donated over 25 million safe and effective vaccines to Indonesia, in partnership with COVAX, UNICEF, and the Government of Indonesia. The latest donation of seven million arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta in four shipments between Sunday and Tuesday.
On December 10, the United States delivered an additional 49,140 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to the people of the Kyrgyz Republic as part of continued pandemic assistance. This shipment was made possible through COVAX, an initiative to support equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Today, the United States and Timor-Leste broke ground on a U.S.-funded isolation facility in Baucau that will help treat COVID-19 patients and offset the strain on existing medical facilities.
On December 8, Administrator Samantha Power met with more than a dozen key nongovernmental stakeholders to share outcomes and next steps following the December 6 COVID-19 Development Ministerial meeting, as well as to identify ways to collaborate on donor coordination and resource mobilization. Administrator Power briefed the partners on the new Initiative for Global Vaccine Access (Global VAX), which she announced at the Ministerial. Global VAX will be supported by funding from a new U.S. commitment of $400 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, which will bring total U. S. investments in COVID-19 vaccine readiness to over $1.6 billion. A portion of the new funding will also support vaccine manufacturing and other frontline surge support needed to save lives. NGO partners shared perspectives on ways USAID can partner with their organizations in the next phase of pandemic response and ahead of the next Global COVID-19 Summit in 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic has cost more than five million lives around the world and continues to upend the global economy, exacerbate humanitarian crises, and reverse years of global health and development gains. We are in a race against the clock in the effort to vaccinate the world, suppress transmission, and save lives, and none of us will truly be safe until we are all safe. At President Biden’s September 22, 2021 Global COVID-19 Summit, participants discussed global targets focused on Vaccinating the World, Saving Lives Now, and Building Back Better to strengthen global health systems and health security and prevent future pandemics. These targets, aligned with those of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), included vaccinating 70 percent of the world by mid-2022; and ensuring access to oxygen and wider availability of testing, authorized therapeutics, and other critical medical products such as access to personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline health workers to deliver these tools. At the November 10, 2021 Foreign Ministerial hosted by Secretary of State Blinken, Foreign Ministers discussed the state of the global response to COVID-19, meeting global targets, and efforts to build back better global health security, and the need to address these with urgency.
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