The United States of America has committed some $100 million towards the fight against the novel Coronavirus in Guyana.
The United States Embassy in Guyana today informed via its website that the country, through the Regional Caribbean Office of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC ), is releasing $100 million (US $475,000) to help address Guyana’s priority areas of laboratory diagnostics and systems strengthening and supplies, surveillance, infection prevention & control, and emergency operation centres.
“Through the generosity of the American people and the leadership of the U.S. government, the United States continues to lead the public health and humanitarian assistance to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the release stated.
The money, it said is part of that country’s ongoing commitment to Guyana through the U.S. Caribbean Resiliency Partnership.
The fund is also part of a regional funding package of US$3,000,000 provided to support the current COVID-19 Response.
The embassy said the CDC will coordinate with the Ministry of Public Health here and its regional partners to disburse the funds “rapidly and implement the activities.”
Chair of the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo had stated last week that Guyana had made several requests to international agencies to aid the country’s fight against the pandemic. Those requests, he noted, were pending.
He related that Finance Minister Winston Jordan had approached a number of institutions, some of which are in the process of “dealing with the request for assistance.”
The Prime Minister also stated that Guyana is pursuing assistance from India through the Indian Grant to Caribbean Countries. The approaches are being made to utilise Guyana’s allocation for supplies relevant to the COVID-19 fight in Guyana,
An approach was also made to the People’s Republic of China, and that assistance is forthcoming as an estimated 30,000 masks and a number of ventilators and other essential medical equipment are on their way to Guyana.