Guyana among CARICOM countries to get COVID-19 aid from the US

Oct 26, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – The United States through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in a press release issued on Sunday, announced its US$2.5 million in urgent COVID-19 for countries in the Eastern Caribbean Region, which include the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname.
This assistance aims to provide support to operational costs of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, vaccine hesitancy surveys, laboratory detection and vaccine storage, equipment procurement to support the development of COVID-19 vaccination information systems and outreach activities to reduce vaccine hesitancy in collaboration with local influencers and celebrities.
Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, Mark Cullinane, announced the funding during a review of the USAID/CARICOM regional strategy on Thursday last. Cullinane remarked that, “this review speaks to the level of importance that the United States holds CARICOM as a strategic partner in the global COVID-19 response and advancing health security in the Caribbean. The United States will work proudly alongside our regional partners, PAHO, UNICEF, CARPHA and CARICOM in efforts to mitigate and eliminate the effects of the pandemic in Guyana and the wider Caribbean.”
The USAID regional representative for the eastern and southern Caribbean, Clinton White, noted that, “the new funding will also respond to urgent gaps in the COVID-19 case management such as procuring oxygen, laboratory equipment and other critical items to help reduce deaths from COVID-19 in Caribbean countries.”
CARICOM’s Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett, expressed appreciation for the assistance, particularly on behalf of those CARICOM member states that would benefit, by noting that, “no member state has been spared from this deadly virus and its devastating impact on the health and wellbeing of their citizens and their respective economies.”
She projected that the resources will assist the member states “to intensify their logistic arrangements and communications to further support vaccine readiness while countering vaccine hesitancy and disinformation, which we anticipate will increase the number of persons vaccinated against COVID-19 virus.”
This additional assistance from the historic American Rescue Plan act of 2021 builds on previous COVID-19 support provided to Caribbean countries. USAID has provided nearly $63 million in COVID-19 assistance to the Caribbean since the beginning of the pandemic to assist in the health, humanitarian and economic impacts of the virus.
This assistance is helping to deliver vaccines, expand access to COVID-19 testing and treatments, protect and train health workers, deliver life-saving health commodities and equipment, share public health information and safeguard global health security.

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