The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has allocated additional $3 million to support Georgia’s response to COVID-19, U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan said in a video message on Friday.

“The U.S. also continues to provide new assistance in the health care sector. I am please today to announce an additional $3 million from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (or CDC) to support Georgia’s response to COVID-19.

Since January, CDC has supported Georgia’s preparation for and response to the pandemic, partnering with the NCDC and Ministry of Health. Some of the activities they have been working on together include:

Training healthcare workers on the proper use of personal protective equipment, infection prevention and control, and contact tracing of suspected cases of COVID-19;

They have also been providing technical assistance on patient management and flow systems to mitigate the spread of the virus in hospital settings; and

And they have been training field epidemiologists (or disease detectives) and giving them the necessary skills to collect, analyze, and interpret COVID-19 data.

This $3 million in new funding builds on CDC’s more than 10-year partnership with Georgia, across priority public health programs, such as Hepatitis C Elimination, the Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program, and supporting the Richard G. Lugar Center to provide quality assurance and control for laboratories across the country.

Thank you again for joining me today, and for all of your contributions to the struggle against this virus. The fight is not over yet, but we are definitely making progress,” Ambassador Degnan said.