US provides COVID-19 testing equipment, supplies to Tajikistan

DUSHANBE -- The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has delivered $264,985 (3 million TJS) worth of COVID-19 laboratory supplies and equipment to the Tajik Ministry of Health and Social Protection (MHSP), the US Embassy in Dushanbe said in a statement Friday (May 21).

The items include "biological safety cabinets, an ultra-low temperature freezer for cold storage (-86°С), and other lab supplies, such as virus transportation and preservation media, biohazard disposal stands and sterile filter tips", said the embassy.

Equipment and lab materials that the CDC has donated to Tajikistan since the pandemic began now total $584,305 (6.6 million TJS) in value. Public health laboratories in Isfara, Istaravshan, Kabodiyon and Panjakent districts will use the donated items.

"Our collaboration with the [MSHP] started long before the current pandemic and will continue after it is over. American support to improving the health of people in Tajikistan, and across Central Asia, is an unwavering commitment," said CDC Central Asia Director Dr. Daniel Singer.

Many forms of US support

The CDC has been supporting Central Asia's health ministries since the outbreak began.

It organises trainings and provides technical assistance on "emergency operations, laboratory operations, infection prevention and control, screening at ports of entry, risk communication and community engagement, and disease surveillance", according to the statement.

The CDC has a long history of collaborating on public health with Central Asian governments. It opened its first Central Asian office in Almaty in 1995.

Today the CDC has offices in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The CDC "works with each country's health ministry to strengthen local laboratory, disease surveillance and workforce capacity so that the countries can better prevent, detect and respond to disease outbreaks", said the statement.