The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has completed the delivery of $264,985 worth of COVID-19 laboratory supplies and equipment to Tajikistan’s Ministry of Health and Social Protection (MHSP). The delivered items include biological safety cabinets, an ultra-low temperature freezer for cold storage (-86С), and other lab supplies, such as virus transportation and preservation media, biohazard disposal stands, and sterile filter tips.
The total value of equipment and lab materials donated to Tajikistan by CDC since the beginning of the pandemic is now $584,305. The items donated by CDC will be used in public health laboratories in Isfara, Istaravshan, Kabodiyon and Panjakent regions.
“Our collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection 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.
CDC has been supporting the ministries of health in Central Asia since the beginning of the outbreak by organizing trainings and providing technical assistance on emergency operations, laboratory operations, infection prevention and control, screening at ports of entry, risk communication and community engagement, and disease surveillance.
CDC, the United States’ leading public health agency, has a long history of collaboration with governments in Central Asia on public health issues. CDC opened its first office in Almaty in 1995 and today it has offices in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. CDC works with each Ministry of Health to strengthen local laboratory, disease surveillance, and workforce capacity so that the countries can better prevent, detect and respond to disease outbreaks.
