Google has announced a total commitment of $7.5 million in new grant funding and other support to help alleviate the current pandemic crisis in Pakistan and five other Southeast Asian countries, said a press release from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef).

"As part of this new commitment, Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, is providing a $1.5m grant to Unicef to support urgent Covid-19 response needs across five countries including Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines," the press release reads.

Unicef will use the grant to deploy female vaccinators in vaccination centres to increase the number of women being vaccinated and boost vaccine communication in Pakistan, according to the press release.

It added that Google.org will provide $5m worth of ad grants to local government agencies and organisations across Southeast Asia to run public health information campaigns for free.

"The current surge in Covid-19 cases is causing immense pressure on our healthcare system, and this Google.org grant to Unicef aims to deepen our support for Pakistan at this critical time," said Farhan Qureshi, country director for Google Pakistan.