The sum of $1.1 billion will be expended to procure medicine, oxygen and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Lilliendaal Greater Georgetown.
The sum was catered for under the Ministry of Health’s drugs and medical supplies programme which was allocated some $4.1 billion.
During the consideration of the national budget estimates on Thursday, subject minister, Dr. Frank Anthony explained that the sums allocated for the ‘COVID’ Hospital will not only cater for oxygen, but other medication being used to treat patients, including remdesivir and baricitinib. The national $552.9B budget was subsequently passed.
Minister Anthony told the house that the ministry intends to procure other medications once they become available.
“Our intention is to procure paxlovid once it becomes available on the market, but unfortunately the supply is quite limited and a lot of that is being used in the United States and some of the European countries, so access to it is quite limited,” he said.
Minister Anthony further stated that the government is trying to source the Merck drug ‘Molnupiravir’.
“We have made some headways with that and recently, a local company has registered Molnupiravir in Guyana and hopefully they will be able to supply that particular drug,” the minister added.
Resources have been set aside under another programme to purchase vaccines for children ages five to 11 once they become available, Minister Anthony announced.
Additionally, the sum of $776 million was set aside for the National Public Reference Laboratory. A large amount of that sum will be used to purchase reagents needed for PCR testing.
Some $523 million will also go towards the health emergency operating centre, which is the coordinating unit for the COVID response.
