CASTRIES, St Lucia – The HIV TB Elimination Project (HTEP) of the Health Unit of the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean (OECS) Commission working in collaboration with the OECS Regional Coordinating Mechanism (RCM), secured USD$ 356,000 from the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to support six OECS Member States (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines) to ramp up their testing for COVID-19. These funds will allow the region to conduct 7,800 COVID-19 tests.
Identifying, isolating and preventing people infected with COVID-19 from further spreading the infection is key to helping OECS Member States prevent the impact of the disease and the additional social and economic devastation of economies as they re-open their borders. In order to achieve this, Member States need to scale up COVID-19 tests in the short and medium-term.
Grant funds are part of USD 500 million that the Global Fund has made available to all recipients of its grants to use in their COVID-19 responses. HTEP submitted reprogramming requests and proposals for USD$ 356,000. Out of these funds, USD$255,245 is immediately available to the OECS, while the remainder available once the Global Fund is able to secure additional funds.