KUALA LUMPUR: The United States (US) Ambassador to Malaysia, Brian McFeeters (pix), said assisting Malaysians to fight Covid-19 in any way remains the embassy’s top priority, donating some US$250,000 (RM1,029,125) to the country as part of its Covid-19 relief assistance, recently.
The ambassador said the donation, which is the second part of the Covid-19 relief assistance, was handed over to National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) on June 8 in the form of information technology (ICT) equipment to help the agency manage the pandemic response operations in Malaysia, besides personal protective equipment (PPE) like face masks, hand sanitisers and thermometers for frontline workers.
“Malaysia is experiencing serious difficulties due to Covid-19 at this time. I as the ambassador and my team at the embassy want to help Malaysians in any way, this is our top priority,“ he said in fluent Malay through a Youtube posting.
The donation was made possible through the Office of Defence Cooperation (ODC) of the embassy by the US Department of Defence, United States Indo-Pacific Command’s (USINDOPACOM) Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster and Civic Aid (OHDACA) office.
The first part of the embassy’s Covid-19 relief assistance to the Ministry of Health took place at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) early March this year.
McFeeters said United States, as the largest donor to COVAX, will also work with COVAX to donate an additional 80 million vaccine doses for the global Covid-19 vaccine programme run by GAVI and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“The US is the largest donor to COVAX and pleased to donate seven million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to several Asian countries through COVAX including Malaysia,“ he added.
Meanwhile, Nadma Director General Datuk Dr Aminuddin Hassim, in a media advisory made available by the embassy, said Nadma expressed its gratitude on behalf of the Malaysian government for the additional contribution from the United States, via the embassy.
“This contribution will be put to good use to assist our health frontliners in battling the third wave of Covid-19 spread that is currently ravaging our country.
“This generous gesture is a testament of the US solidarity and strong bilateral ties with Malaysia,“ he added. — Bernama
