St. Kitts and Nevis’s COVID-19 fight received a boost thanks to a donation of medical equipment on Friday 13 November, 2020
Bridgetown, Barbados, November 17, 2020 (PAHO/WHO)—The Federation received 35,200 respiratory masks, 10,500 isolation gowns, and 3,600 goggles, through PAHO with financial assistance from the Government of Canada. Dr. Yitades Gebre, PAHO/WHO Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Countries, pledged PAHO’s commitment and continued support to the region. “Since the beginning, PAHO/WHO has promoted science, solutions and solidarity as the way to overcome COVID-19. This message has never been more important than now, as the world reaches the grim milestone of 50 million cases, and a tragic 1.25 million deaths.”
Dr. Gebre declared: “We urge Member States to dedicate domestic investment and recurrent spending and public funding to health emergency preparedness, and to improve government and decision-making processes and enhance institutional capacity and infrastructure for public health.”
Minister of Health for St. Kitts and Nevis, the Honourable Akilah Byron-Nisbett, received the donation and had this to say: “The successful management of COVID-19 necessitates astronomical financial investments and because the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis is a small, developing, service-oriented state, as well as the fact that owing to the closure of the borders there has been a significant adverse impact on the tourism sector, countries like ours are challenged to generate the necessary funding to implement the appropriate infrastructure, which is imperative to effectively combat the virus.”
Minister Byron-Nisbett thanked the Government of Canada for the donation and expressed pleasure about the excellent relations between the two nations. The Minister also commended local health officials for their excellent service, and PAHO/WHO for their efforts.
“PAHO/WHO have been extremely helpful in so many ways to our efforts and continue to provide a level of assistance that we will forever be grateful for. If it were not for PAHO/WHO, Dr. Gebre and his team, our border opening efforts would not have been so successful as it has been, as PAHO provided support for training our frontline workers, provided assistance for staffing at our ports of entry and continues to assist with efforts such as ensuring that our labs here at JNF can be ready soonest to provide molecular PCR testing.”
