Asia Pacific COVID-19 Appeal

The Asia Pacific, the first epicentre of COVID-19, has recorded more than 55 million confirmed cases and more than 877,000 confirmed deaths.

Countries in the Asia Pacific region continue to experience new waves of COVID-19 infections, which have threatened to overwhelm hospitals and already fragile health care systems. Local Red Cross and Red Crescent teams have been responding to the pandemic since the very beginning.

Australian Red Cross and the Red Cross Red Crescent movement support people who are most vulnerable in the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes support for our local partners across Asia Pacific and beyond to scale up their emergency activities in response to COVID-19 surges and sustain their essential services such as health, water, sanitation and hygiene services to people and communities into the long term.

To date, Red Cross and Red Crescent teams in Asia and the Pacific have supported millions of people. And they will support millions more as this pandemic continues. Their work includes:

• Providing primary medical care and psychosocial support
• Providing medical equipment and personal protective equipment
• Distributing other essential relief, such as food, cash grants and emergency shelter o working with governments to get people vaccinated as quickly as possible, including ensuring marginalised groups are not overlooked
• Working with health ministries to disseminate tailored health messaging, including raising public awareness about the importance of vaccines, and addressing vaccine hesitation
• Sharing health and hygiene messages
• Countering rumours and misinformation o working in quarantine centres
• Contributing to government-led national COVID-19 preparedness and response action plans
• Conducting routine surveillance activities and alerting authorities to any unusual community-level events and helping with contact tracing.

Across Asia Pacific, local Red Cross and Red Crescent teams have been working tirelessly to help contain the spread of the virus over the last year, working with governments to get people vaccinated as quickly as possible, raising public awareness around the importance of vaccines, including dispelling any vaccine hesitation. They are also disseminating health and hygiene messages, providing medical care, medical equipment, and personal protective equipment, providing psychosocial support and distributing other essential relief, such as food, cash grants and emergency shelter.

We have supported millions of people since the start of the pandemic and we will support millions more as it continues.