Covid-19: USAID supported SAMRIDH Healthcare to accelerate india’s response to the pandemic

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-supported SAMRIDH Healthcare Blended Financing Facility has committed $27 million to support India’s national health priorities, including oxygen delivery systems, cold chain storage for vaccines, supply chain management for COVID-19 medicines, training for healthcare workers, and other hospital and community-based activities that can be rapidly expanded to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regarding USAID’s support to SAMRIDH, USAID/India Acting Mission Director, Karen Klimowski, said: “USAID’s support to SAMRIDH reflects the United States’ strong commitment to accelerating India’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through SAMRIDH, USAID is identifying and fast-tracking the deployment of solutions to some of the most pressing healthcare challenges posed by the pandemic including the shortage of medical oxygen and lack of adequate vaccine storage facilities.”

Ashwajit Singh, Managing Director, IPE Global said, “At a time when India’s healthcare systems are in urgent need of reinforcement, USAID’s additional support to SAMRIDH will help it to scale-up and deploy lifesaving health solutions. Through our continuing engagement with USAID, we support resilient and inclusive health systems, ensuring everyone has access to timely, affordable, and quality healthcare services.”

USAID, through the SAMRIDH facility, has also recently funded healthcare enterprises that include:

• A healthcare company that is adding beds with oxygen-delivering equipment to hospitals that serve poor and marginalized communities
• A manufacturer of low-cost defibrillators that can be used to treat heat-related emergencies in resource constrained hospitals;
• A private company addressing the continuing need for cost-effective oxygen concentrators, which turn ambient air into oxygen suitable for the treatment of severely ill COVID-19 patients.

SAMRIDH is also mobilizing additional resources from bilateral and multilateral donors, corporations, financial institutions, and philanthropy, and adopting innovative funding mechanisms to attract capital from the public and private sectors to support health care solutions across India.