For Immediate Release

Office of Press Relations
press@usaid.gov

Press Release

Today, at the second Global COVID-19 Summit, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced new efforts to prevent future pandemics and pilot a lifesaving test and treat strategy, as part of USAID’s ongoing leadership to end the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and advance global health security.

  • $200 million investment in sustained financing to build global capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to pandemics

    Building on the Administration’s initial pledge of $250 million, announced at the first Global COVID-19 Summit in September 2021, USAID plans to invest an additional $200 million in FY22 Global Health Security funds toward the establishment of a new pandemic preparedness and global health security fund at the World Bank. This increases the United States government’s total announced funding to $450 million. The United States urged partners to make similar pledges, and acknowledged $3.1 billion in new financial commitments made today.

    This fund, supported by multiple governments and donors, is expected to launch this summer to provide sustained financing for improving local, national, and global capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to the current pandemic, future pandemics and other infectious disease threats.

  • $20 million to launch a lifesaving Test and Treat COVID-19 strategy in up to eight countries.

    Increasing global access to COVID-19 therapeutics–such as recently authorized, safe, and effective oral COVID-19 antivirals–can save the lives of both the vaccinated and unvaccinated who become infected with COVID-19. For optimum treatment outcomes, these new antivirals should be administered in the early days of infection. USAID’s strategy–designed for early detection and treatment–will help low- and middle-income countries reduce the burden on health systems and prevent COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths through timely diagnoses and access to oral COVID-19 antiviral medications in communities and health facilities.

    USAID plans to invest $20 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to launch a robust test and treat strategy in up to eight countries in 2022, in coordination with other U.S. Government programs, including PEPFAR. The strategy will support delivery and access to COVID-19 treatment within five days of symptom-onset to people who test positive and have risk factors for progression to severe COVID-19 disease. Our commitment will leverage up to $80 million in funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria to procure rapid tests and oral COVID-19 antiviral drugs, as well as an additional $22 million from Unitaid to expand and accelerate the introduction of new treatments through ongoing Unitaid/FIND early-adoption, test-and-treat programs launched in late 2021. These combined investments of over $120 million will support test and treat adoption in over 20 countries in 2022.

This work builds on USAID’s ongoing efforts to end the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, from supporting the delivery of over 539 million vaccines in 115 countries, to leading efforts to get shots in arms in more than 100 countries through Global VAX, to strengthening health systems everywhere.

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