Japanese ambassador lauds Pakistan's efforts to combat coronavirus

ISLAMABAD: Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan Matsuda Kuninori commended Pakistan’s tremendous efforts to tackle the coronavirus, which has so far left 26 people dead and over 2000 infected in Pakistan, ARY News reported.

Japanese ambassador said this while talking to Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza here in Islamabad on Thursday.

During the meeting, both leaders discussed the situation arising out of Covid-19.

He said that Japan provided Pakistan $2.16 million as assistance in the fight against the novel coronavirus.  “This support will boost Pakistan’s capacity to quickly track the coronavirus affected persons and treat them accordingly”.

Dr Zafar Mirza on the occasion said that Pakistan is taking all necessary measures to contain the spread of coronavirus in the country. “PM Imran Khan is closely monitoring the coronavirus situation”.

The government of Japan has decided to provide grant of $1,620,000 through The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and $540,000 through International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to the Government of Pakistan to equip Pakistani people to fight against the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection.

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar on Wednesday thanked the government of Japan for giving Pakistan a generous grant to help the fight against coronavirus pandemic.

The minister taking to the micro-blogging website Twitter said that the grant valued at $2 million will be dessiminated to Pakistan via UNICEF and IOM.

The tweet read: “We are grateful to the Japanese government for providing $ 2 million in grant assistance through UNICEF and IOM to Pakistan for dealing with Covid-19. In addition they have allocated Rs 2.5 Billion from their existing unspent grant funds in Pakistan towards health projects.”