Al-Mashat: USAID Donates 250 Ventilators to Egypt

Minister of International Cooperation Dr. Rania Al-Mashat announced that the United States of America, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), donated 250 highly specialized, state-of-the-art ventilators for intensive care units at Egyptian hospitals.

This comes within the strong strategic partnership between the two countries, and the global cooperation efforts that are being carried out to support countries' response to the pandemic, the International Cooperation Ministry said in a statement.

Al-Mashat said: “The COVID-19 challenge has pushed stronger cooperation between countries to meet evolving humanitarian needs. Egypt’s partnership with the United States has reflected a spirit of collective responsibility and reciprocated solidarity for the benefit of our communities.”

The Egyptian government previously donated a package of medical aid to the United States last April to contribute to the efforts in combating the pandemic.

https://twitter.com/USEmbassyCairo/status/1292538099101302793

Al-Mashat added the US donation of the ventilators comes within the ministry’s Multi-Stakeholder platforms to strengthen partnerships with multilateral and bilateral development partners for achieving value-centric results through regular interactive and participatory consultations with all partners and line ministries, to progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

U.S. Ambassador Cohen said: “The donation of 250 ventilators to hospitals throughout Egypt represents the latest step in the joint efforts by Egypt and the United States to fight COVID-19. Early in the pandemic, Egypt generously provided the United States with a donation of personal protective equipment so our healthcare workers could stay safe. The innovation of American private industry has allowed us to return the favor today with these state-of-the-art, lifesaving devices.”

The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Ministry of Health and Population, and USAID have identified 24 hospitals in 12 governorates that have both a need for ventilators and staff who can use them immediately to treat patients suffering from the effects of COVID-19.

The cooperation portfolio of the USAID in Egypt has reached more than $30 billion since 1978 in several sectors; and over $1 billion has been invested to strengthen Egypt’s health system, working in partnership with the Egyptian people to improve maternal and child health and nutrition, eliminate infectious diseases, and educate and mobilize community health workers.

The ministry has been pushing the frontiers of multilateralism through public-private partnerships that have helped implement projects dedicated to enhancing the lives of the Egyptian people, not only to scale up the immediate health response to curb the spread of Covid-19 but to bring to the fore the urgent need to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals, according to the statement.