IDB donates US$750,000 to support CARPHA’s COVID-19 response in the Caribbean

Jun 23, 2020 News

The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) received a grant of US$750,000 from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to support the agency’s COVID-19 response in the Caribbean region.
The grant, which was made available through the IDB Japan special fund, will be used to support the laboratory response capacity at CARPHA, and mobilize, surge and strengthen real-time disease surveillance and response through the CARPHA Regional Travelers Health Program (THP) for all 26 of the Agency’s member states. It will also facilitate the training of Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) in participating countries to provide regional and national responses to COVID-19 and other public health emergencies.
The grant will also aim strengthen COVID-19 detection capacities in participating countries such as Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica as well as Trinidad and Tobago, This grant will fund the expansion of CARPHA’s Regional Travelers Health Program (THP) and the modification of its early warning and response surveillance Travel Health information System (THiS) to participating countries to facilitate real-time reporting, monitoring, and response to COVID-19. This component will also facilitate the development and implementation of the Caribbean travel health mobile app for real time information sharing.
Executive Director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency, Dr. Joy St John noted that “the beneficiary countries will gain from CARPHA’s collective public health epidemiology and disease surveillance and prevention knowledge, convening capacity and project management expertise in coordinating their individual responses to the COVID-19 virus. However, it is expected that the outputs and work conducted under this grant will be shared with all CARPHA Member States (CMS) which include the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States; and in keeping with its mandate, CARPHA will work with its Member States in both their collective and individual COVID-19 responses,” in a press release.
Activities under the grant are scheduled to begin from July 2020 and run until June 2022.

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