Part of the $6.8 billion allocated to the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic will be used for the procurement of vaccines for children between ages five and eleven.
Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony made this statement during Thursday’s COVID-19 update.
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for finance, Dr. Ashni Singh announced the multibillion-dollar injection to boost the national COVID-19 response programme.
Since the beginning of the pandemic two years ago, the PPP/C Government has been making strides to prevent the spread of the deadly disease.
Dr Anthony said resources have also been set aside to procure vaccines for children between six months and five years, if those vaccines become available this year.
“This year we are expecting that we would be able to have access to vaccines for children between five to eleven…and our understanding is that Pfizer, in the first quarter of this year, would also be submitting their information to the US FDA for a vaccine which might be a three-dose regimen for children between 5 (years) to 6 months, so if those vaccines become available this year, then we would like to have access to those vaccines and we have set aside some resources to do that,” Minister Anthony said.
He said the budgetary allocation will allow the Ministry to conduct outreaches and drive-throughs to ensure citizens have easy access to vaccination.
Additionally, medications will be acquired to treat persons infected with the disease.
“This year, we’ll continue the procurement of medications that can be used to treat patients with COVID-19…these medications sometimes can be very costly, so we have set aside enough monies to be able to acquire these medications.”
Meanwhile, Minister Anthony said the ministry will be purchasing oxygen, Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and testing kits.
“Some of these monies will go to buy the relevant kits to do PCR testing and to make sure that we have enough antigen testing,” Dr. Anthony said.
He said testing kits will also be necessary, since the level of testing being done in the country is very high.
