Min. Anthony pleased with budget allocation for health

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr Frank Anthony has lauded the proposed $53.5 billion Budget 2021 allocation for the health sector, and the additional $2.1 billion for the COVID-19 response programme. A provision of over $750 million was also allocated to support the rolling out of the Covid vaccines from this month.

Dr. Anthony said the proposed sums would enable the Ministry to provide quality healthcare to the nation, and respond to the pandemic.

The Minister made these statements during the daily COVID-19 update on Monday.

“This allows us to fix some of the problems that we have in this sector, the challenges that we have, things like shortages of medicines, trying to get equipment for health centres and district hospitals and regional hospitals and so forth.

It’s not going to solve everything, but certainly will go a long way in fixing many of the problems that we currently have in the sector. So, we are extremely pleased with the allocation,” he said.

The $2.1 billion allocation for Covid would cover the cost of procuring critical items such as medical supplies, test skits, sanitising materials and personal protective equipment. Funds from this allocation would also be used to purchase additional monitors for the Intensive Care Unit at the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention at Liliendaal.