$4.5B allocated towards medical supplies, COVID-19 relief – Minister

Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony on Monday announced that funding has been set aside to aid in the country’s COVID-19 response, which will cover medical supplies, relief and other areas which need intervention.

This has been allocated in keeping with the promise from President, Dr Irfaan Ali, to allocate $4.5 billion to address key areas.
According to Dr Anthony, a chunk of the money will be used for the procurement of supplies to outfit the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) – which will serve as an isolation facility. This encompasses the installation of over 50 beds, so that persons can be treated and housed.
Secondly, automated Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machines will be purchased to boost the testing capability in the public sector. This has proven to reduce the processing time for samples to just two hours.
Apart from supplies, money will be allocated towards a socio-economic response to assist vulnerable households and small businesses.
Funds are also being mobilised from the World Bank, OPEC Fund for International Development, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank, totalling a sum of US$60 million.
Just over two weeks ago, President Ali had noted that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government will be mobilising resources – financially or otherwise – to tackle the novel coronavirus pandemic in Guyana and recover from the impact it has had on the local economy.
“I’ve also been actively involved in mobilising resources from international agencies and also from bilateral partners [to tackle COVID-19]. It has been going well so far. I’m hoping by Monday, we will be in a better position to say how much resources we’ve mobilised, and what has been mobilised from a medical perspective and from a socioeconomic perspective,” he noted.
In fact, the President had disclosed that he has already engaged some of Guyana’s major donor bilateral partners including the Governments of India, the United States and Canada to secure more resources. He added that he has also reached out to the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Organisation of Islamic Conference and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and is now slated to speak with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in the coming days. It was further noted that letters were also sent off to several of the Gulf States for resources in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Head of State, Guyana needs all of the assistance it can get to tackle the life-threatening disease, which has not infected over 1000 persons.
In just one week since taking office, the new PPP/C Administration had mobilised and received 46,000 rapid antibody test kits, personal protection equipment (PPE), approximately 240,000 surgical masks, and face shields, gowns and other urgently needed supplies.
Last week, the Government of India allocated US$1 million from the “Quick Impact Development Project” that is being implemented jointly by the Health Ministry, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to support Guyana’s response to COVID-19.