Congressman Mooney: Georgia Leads the Region in Diagnostic Tests and Research
Republican congressman Alex Mooney, the US Representative for West Virginia's 2nd congressional district, has responded to Georgia's fight against the global pandemic on social media.
"I’m proud of the strong partnership the US shares with the Republic of Georgia. Throughout the worldwide health crisis, our ally has remained resilient, developing a thorough anti-crisis economic plan & leading the region in diagnostic tests and research," he tweeted.
With this statement, the congressman shared the article of the US Department of Defense, entitled "DOD Supports Partner Nations With COVID-19 Mitigation Assistance," which reads that the Defense Department's Cooperative Threat Reduction Program has supported COVID-19 requests for assistance from 13 nations totaling about $2.9 million.
This recent support is part of the department's ongoing efforts to counter biological weapons of mass destruction threats. The DOD CTR Program works cooperatively with international partners to mitigate WMD-related threats to the US homeland, US forces abroad, and US partners and allies. This includes biological, nuclear, and chemical weapons and related delivery systems.
With regard to biological threats, the program has partnered with more than 30 countries since 2004 to improve their ability to detect, diagnose and report the spread of, especially dangerous pathogens. It has accomplished this through training, information exchanges, scientific partnerships, providing equipment, and laboratory construction. It works across sectors to help partner scientists and technicians safeguard pathogen samples held in laboratory facilities against accidental or intentional release, promote research collaboration, and facilitate trainings and best practices.
"Partner nations are now leveraging these capabilities developed over the last 15-plus years as part of their COVID-19 preparedness and response efforts. Laboratory facilities that CTR previously helped partner nations construct or renovate are playing a particularly crucial role. These facilities, fully owned and operated by the partner nation, are often the central facility in a country or region running diagnostic tests and research for COVID-19. For example:
- Georgia's National Center for Disease Control and Public Health in Tbilisi is running COVID-19 diagnostic tests and sharing COVID-19 research and procedures with other partners in the region;
- Ukraine's Public Health Center’s Emergency Operation Center is sharing outbreak data and practices for safe and effective COVID-19 diagnosis and reporting; and
- Armenia's Health Ministry, through its network of biological analysis laboratories, is conducting analyses of COVID-19 samples.
"The DOD CTR Program also is supporting foreign partner requests for assistance to help stem the spread of COVID-19. These vary from requests for information and subject matter expertise to requests for diagnostics support and personal protective equipment. For example, between March 19 and April 7, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Health requested 400 protective goggles and masks, 51 infrared thermometers, 200 disposable coveralls, and 2.4 tons of disinfectant, all of which the DOD CTR Program provided by April 10," reads the article.
By Ana Dumbadze