Israel donates $2M worth of PPEs to Ministry of Health
The Government of Israel on Thursday donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) valuing $2M to the local health sector to aid in tackling the spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The donation was made at the Georgetown Public Health Corporation (GPHC).
The donation includes 100,000 surgical masks, 5,000 KN95 masks, 20 Pulse Oximeters, and 4,600 shoe covers among other items.
Representing the Ministry of Health, former Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy expressed gratitude to Israel for the PPE’s which he said will help to sustain a safe and effective fight against COVID-19.
“The fight against COVID-19 has been an uphill task. We’ve had to compete with the giants for our supplies, we’ve had to wait sometimes even when we had our resources to pay, we’ve had to wait because supplies are not available so when we receive supplies like PPE, it is helping us to overcome some of these difficulties,” he noted.
Dr. Ramsammy asked for strengthened cooperation so more Guyanese can benefit from the research and technology available in that country.
He further plead with the developed nation to assist developing countries to fully roll out their vaccination programmes.
Ambassador to Guyana and other countries, Reda Mansour in brief remarks said Isreal is one of the leading nations in the world that has administered vaccines to majority of its population and undertake studies on the COVID-19
He noted that Guyana and Israel share a fruitful relationship adding that “I think there is a lot to be done here especially in the health sector. Israel is also a leader in the health sector and we always like to share our know-how in this field with professionals from all over the world. We have Medex who comes from all over the world to train in our hospitals and to do their specialization in various fields, I am hoping this will be a first step that will open many other doors of cooperation in Guyana.”
Director of Medical and Professional Services at the GPHC, Dr Fawcett Jeffrey pointed out that the hospital faced many difficulties over the past year in accessing the items being donated. As such, he said “we will put it into very very good use for the protection of our staff, for the protection of our patients…we would like to thank the government and the people of Israel and we do appreciate this.”
Also at the forum was President of the Caribbean Israel Leadership Coalition Dr. Andre Thomas.
Guyana has so far confirmed 9,322 COVID-10 cases of which there were 8,381 recoveries.
The Ministry of Health on Thursday confirmed two additional deaths taking the total to 212. The latest fatalities are two men –66-year-old –of Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) who died while receiving care at a medical facility.
