© (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 04: Former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg addresses his staff and the media after announcing that he will be ending his campaign on March 04, 2020 in New York City. Bloomberg, who has endorsed Joe Biden, spent millions of dollars in his short lived campaign for president. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

As a wave of coronavirus cases washes over the U.S., the country's large urban areas continue to be the hardest hit. There have been over 57,000 cases in New York City alone, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. There are also thousands of cases in cities like Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New Orleans.

Enter Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable arm of former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, which is accustomed to tackling issues through an urban lens. In recent weeks, the group has provided funding and resources to help cities around the world fight the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

"COVID-19 is presenting cities around the world with an unprecedented challenge right now," said Dr. Kelly Henning, head of Bloomberg Philanthropies' public health program, in a written statement. "With big cities often at the epicenter of COVID-19 in many countries, the urgent actions that mayors take could have outsized impact on the trajectory of COVID-19 in their municipalities and their countries."

Bloomberg Philanthropies has launched both local and global initiatives aimed at helping local leaders respond to the outbreak. The charitable organization has donated thousands of masks to hospitals in both New York and London and provided financial support to nonprofits in those cities, as well.

As part of its local response initiative, an effort to help U.S. mayors address the crisis, Bloomberg Philanthropies has partnered with the National League of Cities to create the COVID-19 Local Action Tracker, which publishes the policies and actions that U.S. cities have taken to protect their residents during the outbreak.

Former President George W. Bush participated in the initiative on Thursday, joining Bloomberg in addressing hundreds of U.S. mayors and other local leaders during a webinar about the challenges in responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

On Tuesday, another Bloomberg Philanthropies program called Partnership for Healthy Cities organized a coronavirus webinar for cities around the world, in which participants shared epidemic preparedness and response fundamentals, the latest science around the disease and information about "tools and technical resources geared toward urban contexts," according to a news release. The webinar was a part of the organization's global initiative, which is valued at $40 million and partners with the World Health Organization and Vital Strategies, another global health organization.

Members of the partnership – which includes a network of 70 global cities – will continue to be provided with regular webinars conducted in multiple languages; technical guidance; connections between member cities to exchange experiences and strategies; and a grant program to support response activities, according to the organization.

Henning tells U.S. News that the Partnership for Healthy Cities started in 2017, but recently shifted focus to the outbreak because the cities involved are the "frontline responders to the coronavirus pandemic in their countries."

She says the program seeks to address needs, such as technical direction and best practices around communication, for these cities as they grapple with the exponential increase in COVID-19 cases. With both global and U.S.-based initiatives, Henning sees Bloomberg Philanthropies' work as "multi-pronged."

Other recent actions by Bloomberg Philanthropies include a partnership between the organization, the state of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University to provide $4 million in funding to a research team exploring therapeutic uses of blood plasma from patients who have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

There are now more than 1 million cases of and 56,700 deaths worldwide caused by the coronavirus globally, according to Johns Hopkins.

"Today there are enormous gaps between the support that national governments can provide and what local officials need right away," Bloomberg said in a written statement. "To help fill those gaps, Bloomberg Philanthropies is expanding our longtime work with global mayors and public health experts. Together, we'll work to find and implement solutions that can protect people's health and wellbeing worldwide."

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