South Africa is to benefit from a United States donation of US$570,000 to help Pretoria respond in its fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the country, a senior US official said on Thursday.
According to United States Agency for International Development’s Acting Mission Director, Natasha de Marcken, the funds will pass through her agency from Washington, where Congress has allocated US$8.5 billion to combat the pandemic.
De Marcken said: “The United States is committed to supporting South Africa as well as the global response to the epidemic.”
She added: “The United States government has been very impressed with the response by the government of South Africa, particularly in terms of information sharing and transparency in looking at how the epidemic is going to be addressed here.”
The US assistance came as South Africa on Thursday registered its 17th positive case of the virus, according to the ministry of health.
Local health authorities are to meet with Health Minister Zweli Mkhize later on Thursday to discuss how the country will respond to Wednesday’s World Health Organisation’s declaration of the coronavirus as a pandemic, the ministry said.
The term pandemic relates to a geographic spread and is used to describe a disease that affects a whole country or the entire world.
According to reports, more than 121,500 people have been infected by the deadly coronavirus worldwide, with 4,383 lives lost so far, mainly from China – which is said to be the epicentre of the disease.
NM/jn/APA