Singh budgets $750M for vaccines in COVID-19 fight

SOME $750M has been set aside in the 2021 fiscal estimates to help fight the deadly COVID-19 disease
which has killed more than 180 Guyanese, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh announced Friday in his
hours-long budget speech.

The $750M package is part of the whopping $53.5 billion allocated for the public health sector in Singh’s
2021 Budget which has a $383.1B price tag.

This year’s budget was presented under the theme ‘A Path to Recovery, Economic Dynamism and
Resilience’.

Reading his speech, Dr Singh told the nation that the Irfaan Ali “Government has made a provision of over
$750 million to support the rolling out of COVID-19 vaccines from February and for the rest of the year,
in a phased approach, the first of which will cater to our frontline workers, the elderly, and persons living
with comorbidities.”

Comorbidities, according to the medical definition of  is when a person has several underlying health-
related conditions at the same time. Each sickness is considered as comorbidity, and sometimes could
be present in the form of a physical or mental condition.

According to global statistics, more than over 48 percent of the patients killed by the Corona virus
died after receiving treatment had underlying comorbidities. From that figure, more than 30 percent
were diagnosed with Hypertension; 19 percent with diabetes, and close to eight percent with
cardiovascular (Heart) conditions.
“We can say that Hypertension, Diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases are comorbidities that could
aggravate the rate at which the Coronavirus could affect the body and hamper recovery,” Narayana
Health said on its website.

Narayan Health is based in Bengaluru, India,
Under the government’s vision for the 2021 fiscal year, the administration will expand the diagnostic and
speciality capacities across the country, and $1.8B will fund purchasing critical medical equipment, while
$99.8M will pay for re-equipping the ophthalmology hospital in Port Mourant, East Berbice-Corentyne
(Region Six).

“With regard to HIV, we will intensify our partnerships with civil society organisations to encourage
expanded testing and continued care, to ensure that persons living with the virus are able to remain on their
anti-retroviral treatment thereby curbing transmission; for related treatment and testing Government has
made a provision of $900 million,” Singh said in his budget presentation.

He said $322M will purchase medical equipment, including ventilators and anaesthesia machines, which
will help expand the diagnosis and treatment capacity of the country’s national referral hospital, the
Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

Under the budget, $35M will help strengthen its capacity of its emergency medical services, while a
holistic plan to introduce an ambulance authority is being formulated, Singh said. He said this year’s
budget pushes President Ali’s vision of transforming the healthcare system into one that is world-class will
drive Government’s actions over the next five years.

Another $2.8B is allocated for modernisation and expansion of physical infrastructure in the sector and
will cater for continued implementation of the $860M SMART Hospital initiative which includes putting
into use the upgraded Leonora Hospital and the commissioning of the improved Diamond Diagnostic
Centre and Mabaruma Hospital in 2021.

The budgetary allocation also caters for continued improvements to the Lethem and Paramakatoi
Hospitals, participants in the SMART hospitals’ initiative backed by PAHO/WHO.