TASHKENT, May 1. /“Dunyo” IA/. The Coca-Cola Foundation allocated 200 000 dollars grant to respond to coronavirus outbreak in Uzbekistan. Financial assistance will be entrusted to United Nations Development Programme in Uzbekistan to implement this mission on behalf of Coca-Cola, informs “Dunyo” IA correspondent.
The grant’s purpose is to provide ventilators and other medical equipment as part of humanitarian relief efforts related to the COVID-19 crisis.
The joint UNDP and Coca-Cola work will support Uzbekistan’s health system capacity in the face of COVID-19 outbreak. Urgently needed equipment will be procured to ensure the best chance of survival for patients and will also contribute to establishing the country’s surge capacity to deliver testing services.
It is also expected that the Coca-Cola funding will make a significant input to sustaining the national and local public health capacity in long term perspective with the tools for the most accurate laboratory testing methods for detecting, tracking, and studying not only coronavirus but also other diseases at the very early stages.
Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator stated that alongside with WHO and our UN sister agencies, UNDP is working with governments on their most urgent health system needs and is ready to respond to recovery needs in countries around the globe.
Notably, UNDP Uzbekistan has been cooperating with Coca-Cola Foundation since 2011. Five small-scale projects totaling 5,000 were funded by the Coca-Cola Foundation in the past. Those projects were successfully implemented in remote rural areas of the country including Samarkand, Navoi and Karakalpakstan regions in cooperation with national agencies and organizations.
