The Civil Defence Commission (CDC) on Tuesday afternoon received a donation of several items from the Government of the United States of America Government and its military.
The donation, which consisted of sanitisation, personal care and hygiene items as well as baby supplies, totalled approximately three million dollars (US$15,000).
During the simple handing over ceremony, Director-General of the CDC, Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig thanked the US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah Ann Lynch for the timely supplies which will be used at the quarantine and isolation facilities around the country.
“There are quarantine and isolation facilities not only in Georgetown but you also have on the East Bank of Demerara and in the various regions. So, these items will be used by persons in those facilities to make their stay there as comfortable as possible,” he stated.
The US Ambassador, in an invited comment, expressed satisfaction to be a part of the exercise. She remarked that COVID-19 does not “see borders and does not see different peoples”.
Some five days ago, the US Government – through the Department of Defense’s Humanitarian Assistance Program, donated to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) personal protective equipment and supplies valued at more than US$3,000.
These supplies, consisting of masks, gloves, hand sanitizers, wrist monitors, and others, were procured locally and are part of the larger United States efforts to assist the local authorities in confronting the COVID-19 global pandemic.
On April 23, the US Embassy here announced that as part of the ongoing commitment to Guyana through the U.S. Caribbean Resiliency Partnership, the Regional Caribbean Office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was releasing US$475,000 to help address Guyana’s priority areas of laboratory diagnostics and systems strengthening and supplies, surveillance, infection prevention & control, and emergency operation centres.
Several days later, the US announced an additional US$1.7 million ($357m) to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak in Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean.
As Guyana continues to battle the novel coronavirus locally, several agencies and private entities have lent their support towards the cause.
