Washington, DC, July 1 2020 (PAHO) – The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is seeking to mobilize new resources for its work on the COVID-19 pandemic in the Americas with a new online portal where donations can be made directly to the PAHO COVID-19 Response Fund.

The Region of the Americas is currently the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has now spread to all 54 countries and territories in the hemisphere, with some 5.2 million cases and almost 250,000 deaths reported to date. PAHO is working around the clock with countries and territories of the Americas to respond to this health crisis.

The new DONATE NOW page enables members of the public to contribute directly to PAHO’s COVID-19 Response Fund.

Donations to Fund will be used to:

• Provide essential supplies, including personal protective equipment, to frontline health workers.
• Detect, monitor, and slow the spread of COVID-19 by supporting surveillance, testing, contact tracing, and laboratory capacity in countries and territories.
• Help countries and territories prepare their health systems to cope with the rapid rise and resurgence of COVID-19 cases while maintaining other essential health services.
• Share the latest scientific knowledge, epidemiological data, and technical guidance with governments, health care professionals, and communities to guide public health actions.
• Support research and facilitate participation of countries in genome sequencing and clinical trials of new medicines.

Mobilization of resources is a key part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, PAHO launched an initial US$95 million appeal to support and scale up public health preparedness and response efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean up to August 2020. However, it is now estimated that US$200 million is needed to support pandemic preparedness and response February until December 2020. So far, PAHO has received US$66.6 million in donor contributions and firm pledges.

Since COVID-19 arrived in the Americas, PAHO’s regional and country emergency response teams have been providing direct support to ministries of health and other national leaders in key public health areas. Specific support focuses on coordination in countries, risk communication and community engagement, surveillance and rapid response, points of entry, laboratory capacity, infection prevention and control, clinical management, logistics, maintaining essential health services, and research and development.

PAHO’s technical work in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic includes collaborating with countries and territories to organize their health systems to be able to cope with the rapid rise in cases; procure equipment and supplies, including personal protective equipment and test kits; develop and implement public health prevention measures; apply the latest evidence-based protocols for treatment of COVID-19 patients; strengthen laboratory testing, diagnosis, and surveillance to better detect, track and slow the spread of COVID-19; and stay abreast of new scientific developments and participate in important research on COVID-19