11 Dec

The Japan International Cooperation Agency handed over the Cobas SARS-CoV-2 Reagents equivalent to 178,000 USD to NHL yesterday as the support for early diagnosis and care for the Myanmar people who are affected by the pandemic.

JICA has been assisting the Ministry of Health and Sports in its response to COVID-19 from the early days of COVID-19 outbreak in the country, JICA provided a consignment of medical equipment such as probe, Primer and Testing kit but also medical equipment and consumable such as PPE, medical face mask, Nitrile exam gloves, infrared thermometer and so on as the support for health workers including doctors, nurses and lab staff in April 2020 and June 2020 respectively.

Recently, in the end of October and early in November 2020, JICA provided viral nucleic acid extraction kits necessary for real time PCR test, which worth total 836 million Kyats, for utilizing in NHL & all PHL COVID-19 Labs. Not only the equipment and consumable support, JICA, through Dr Shinsuke Miyano, JICA Expert for Infectious Disease Control and Laboratory Services, has also been providing technical assistance in the area of infection prevention and control, and laboratory data management on COVID-19, at NHL, which enables the NHL lab technicians to concentrate on the manipulation of many respiratory samples at the lab. These data have been utilized for the decision of Ministry of Health and Sports for better strategy and practice to fight against COVID-19.

As further assistance including PCR kit for diagnosis in NHL and necessary equipment for National Blood Centre and hospitals are on the way to assist as the COVID-19 response action. Japan/JICA, as a long-standing partner of Myanmar, will continuously support Myanmar in fighting against COVID-19.

GNLM