USAID has awarded nearly $10 million to the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs to help 18 countries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic through risk communication and community engagement activities. That’s an additional $6 million on top of the $4 million awarded to CCP in March.

CCP’s Breakthrough ACTION project is leading the efforts to help ensure that governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America share appropriate messages with the public – and reduce the spread of rumors and misinformation – in order to prevent transmission of the virus. There have been more than 4.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the new coronavirus was identified in December, with more than 290,000 confirmed deaths around the world.