The United Kingdom has donated about 1.2 million US dollars to Papua New Guinea for its Covid-19 response plan.
PNG Angau hospital Photo: RNZ Pacific
The newspaper The National reports that the British Minister for the Pacific and the Environment Zac Goldsmith announced the funding during a video call with Prime Minister James Marape.
A surge in confirmed cases of the virus in PNG in recent weeks has highlighted the limited capacity of the country's health system.
The UK has also given 2.4 million US dollars to the World Health Organisation.
Lord Goldsmith told RNZ Pacific the UK was not just shelling out money but providing tools to boost health sector capacity in Pacific countries.
"It's very specifically to help countries deal with Covid, so equipment, ventilators, resuscitators, expert training and so on,"Lord Goldsmith said.
"We are ramping up our support through our overseas aid budget, and I'm hoping we can significantly increase that again," he said.
Listen to Dateline interview with the British Minister for the Pacific and the Environment Lord Zac Goldsmith