GUYANA is among the list of Caribbean countries to benefit from a €8M (US$8.6M) grant presented by the European Union (EU) to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to assist the Region with its fight against COVID-19.

In a release, the union stated that the cover grant will be used to cover urgent needs, including protection material, test reagents, lab material, amongst others.

CARPHA is the single regional public health agency for the Caribbean legally established in July 2011 by an Inter-Governmental Agreement signed by CARICOM Member States with operations commencing in January 2013.

It takes special precedence during disasters, provides surveillance and management of non-communicable and communicable diseases inclusive of endemics in the Region.

CARPHA is working closely with CARPHA Member States (CMS) and Caribbean coordinating partners and mechanisms to respond to the threat and to prepare CMS to prevent further transmission from exported cases.

According to an official statement, the grant will also increase the capacity of Caribbean countries to carry out laboratory testing for COVID-19, support coronavirus quarantine and isolation procedures and contact tracing.

It will strengthen surveillance at ports of entry, support laboratory testing and epidemiology training and support and promote the use of COVID-19 guidelines and protocols among health professionals.

Through the grant, CARPHA will hire three additional laboratory technologists to treat with an expected surge in demand for testing for the COVID-19 virus.

To address the coronavirus crisis and its impact, the EU has pledged that €918M in resources will be redirected for Latin America and the Caribbean, targeting specifically most vulnerable countries and population groups.

In a recent letter on behalf of the Caribbean Region, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, told the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (MF) that the Region need specific financial attention as it grapples with significant economic loss linked to tourism and braces for the catastrophic effects of the hurricane season.

“Several of our countries are highly tourism-dependent. The stoppage of airlines and cruise ships has devastated our tourism industry. Hotels and other tourism facilities have been forced to close because of a loss of business as well as domestic measures to try to contain COVID-19 and to arrest its spread. The effect of this is a significant and unsustainable drop in government revenues, including foreign exchange, occurring simultaneously with demands for increased government spending to institute new health facilities and to provide such assistance as possible to families whose only money earner has been laid-off,” Browne expressed in his letter.

The EU has stated that it is aware of the challenges especially faced by specific regions and will do its best to assist. The bulk of the funding for its partner countries comes from the reorientation of existing funds and programmes and amounts to over €15.6B from existing external action resources.

The EU grant is also intended to help finance treatment and vaccines when they become available.