$54m hotel bill for Cubans

HOTEL ACCOMMODATION for a large team of healthcare workers from Cuba has cost the Government approximately $54.3 million.

On March 16, the Ministry of Health & Wellness paid $13.6 million to Surrey Management Limited for the accommodation of Cuban nurses.

It later paid the same company, on April 20, a little more than $40.7 million for Cuban medical workers.

At least 140 healthcare workers from Cuba arrived in March to boost Jamaica’s capacity to contain and treat COVID-19, which has triggered a lockdown of incoming passenger traffic to the country’s ports.

The ministry also purchased 45 television sets in the sum of $1,680,490 for quarantine facilities.

The Ministry of Local Government received emergency funding of $50 million for its coronavirus project and another $50 million for the COVID-19 clean-up programme.

Nearly $304 million was spent to acquire personal protective equipment for medical staff.

The four regional health authorities, which have direct management and operational responsibility for the island’s public hospitals and health centres, have also been provided with initial financial support of close to $750 million to boost their capacity to mount an effective response to the pandemic.

At the same time, The University Hospital of the West Indies has also been provided with an initial $200 million to enhance its capacity to treat patients with COVID-19.

It has cost $500 million to procure prescription drugs through the National Health Fund to ensure the effective treatment of individuals with COVID-19; $194,683,664 for the procurement of 32 ventilators that are vital for persons who may become critically ill; and more than $2 million as an initial payment for the procurement of COVID-19 test kits.

The ministry revealed last week that it had $300 million left of its $2.8-billion COVID-19 budget.