With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), RISE is working in select countries, including Afghanistan, to address the COVID-19 pandemic. In line with ministry of health priorities in each country, RISE’s COVID-19 response support may include: assisting in the planning and rollout of national vaccine plans, including ensuring health care workers are prepared to implement and monitor this plan; providing focused and clinically relevant capacity building for clinicians providing COVID-19 case management; strengthening the oxygen ecosystem; and supporting health care workers in oxygen conservation, rationalization and non-invasive respiratory care.

RISE is a five-year global project—funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and USAID—that works with countries to achieve a shared vision of attaining and maintaining epidemic control, with stronger local partners capable of managing and achieving results through sustainable, self-reliant and resilient health systems. The project is led by Jhpiego with the following partners: ICAP at Columbia University, Management Sciences for Health, Anova, BAO Systems, Johns Hopkins University Center for Public Health and Human Rights, and Mann Global Health. For the COVID-19 ventilator technical assistance effort, RISE is also collaborating with the University of California San Francisco, World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists (via the GH STAR project), FHI 360 (via the EpiC Project) and Johns Hopkins University emergency medicine and critical care staff.

GHSC-PSM is led by Chemonics and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. In alignment with the program’s procurement of oxygen-related equipment, GHSC-PSM is supporting Jhpiego—in partnership with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine—to provide clinical technical assistance (TA) for the oxygen ecosystem in five countries (Afghanistan, Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya and Mozambique). The goal of this TA is to build the capacity of clinicians and other staff at selected health facilities to deliver oxygen therapy in the context of clinical case management of newborn, children and adult COVID-19 patients. The generic package of clinical TA includes support for the following: clinical assessment and triage, testing for COVID-19, age-appropriate supplemental oxygen and advanced respiratory care, therapeutic and supportive medical care, infection prevention and control, adaptation of facility information tools, and ongoing mentorship and supportive supervision.