French agency donates €2 million towards virus laboratories in Cambodia and the region

The ECOMOE II project will support seven laboratories on the front lines in the fight against the epidemic.

The ECOMOE II project will support seven laboratories on the front lines in the fight against the epidemic. Supplied

The French Development Agency (AFD) has provided an additional €2 million ($2.19 million) to the ECOMORE II project, to assist Cambodia and the regions direct response to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Implemented by the Institut Pasteur foundation, the ECOMORE II project aims to strengthen the surveillance, diagnosis and response systems towards the virus for the projects five partner countries: Cambodia, the Philippines, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam.

With the funding directly supporting seven laborites across the five partner nations purchase diagnostic kits, protection for personnel, human resources, further training and skills and the deployment of mass diagnosis strategies.

“This funding is essential to help virology laboratories and the public health effort in the five partner countries of the ECOMORE II project in the face of the health crisis caused by the Covid-19,” said Dr Laurence BARIL, Director of the Institut Pasteur of Cambodia.

“It is essential to delay as much as possible the peak of the epidemic in Southeast Asia, as recommended by the WHO, by supporting partner countries’ control policies and strategies on the spread of the virus through laboratory capacity building,” said, Yazid Bensaïd, AFD Regional Director in Southeast Asia.

Out of the five nations represented in the ECOMORE II project the Philippines has been, by far, hardest it with over 8,000 confirmed cases and 500 deaths.