Switzerland to Provide Additional 90Cr to Bangladesh for Covid-19 Support

Switzerland has pledged an additional 9.8 million Swiss francs (approximately Tk 90 crore) to further strengthen community-based effective prevention measures as the number of coronavirus cases in Bangladesh continue to rise.

The additional funds will be used to help local people prevent the spread of the epidemic and to strengthen socio-economic stability. That is why Switzerland will continue to work with various domestic and international development partners and in close cooperation with the Government of Bangladesh, the Swiss Embassy in Dhaka said in a press release on Thursday (July 1).

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020, Switzerland has funded 17 million Swiss francs (approximately Tk. 160 crore) in 20 projects across Bangladesh to help marginalized communities and frontier organizations.

The embassy added that "those activities have played an effective role in providing timely remedies against the negative effects of the pandemic." The embassy added, "About 1.5 million people have so far received awareness and training on hygiene through Swiss cooperation." One million people have received telemedicine services for advanced treatment of Covid-19. Healthcare was delivered to 130,000 low-income people. In addition, 1 lakh 15 thousand people were given cash assistance and 60 thousand people were provided nutritious food.

In addition, four helplines have been set up to provide psychological and legal assistance to survivors of gender-based violence.

The Swiss embassy added: "Ensuring a vaccine for all in the coming days is one of the keys to overcoming this unprecedented global crisis. After pledging an additional 300 million Swiss francs to the Covax initiative, the Swiss Federal Council yesterday (Wednesday) announced a grant of 4 million AstraZeneca vaccines to the global initiative, which will help speed up the delivery of more vaccines to developing countries."