World Bank pledges $100 million to DOH for COVID-19 response

Washington-based multilateral lender The World Bank has set aside a $100-million fast-track loan for the Department of Health, the Department of Finance said on Wednesday.

The $100-million loan will enable the DOH to procure personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers, along with testing and laboratory materials, quarantine areas, isolation rooms and other essential equipment to contain the spread of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country, according to the DOF.

The Finance department said funds under the World Bank’s Fast Track COVID-19 Facility can be made available to the DOH in a matter of weeks. 

“At the direction of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, a DOF team led by Undersecretary Mark Joven met last week with Mr. Achim Fock, the World Bank Acting Country Director for Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, to outline possible financing options to help the government address the threat of COVID-19,” the DOF said.

The Philippines has so far recorded 193 COVID-19 cases. The disease also killed 14 in the country. 

Meanwhile, seven who have tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered from the disease.  
 
The World Bank announced that it was making available an initial package of up to $12 billion in immediate support to assist countries coping with the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 global outbreak. 

According to the World Bank website, the Fast-Track facility “will help developing countries strengthen health systems, including better access to health services to safeguard people from the epidemic, strengthen disease surveillance, bolster public health interventions, and work with the private sector to reduce the impact on economies.”

Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic team unveiled a package of priority actions initially worth P27.1 billion to help frontliners fight the pandemic and provide economic relief to people and sectors affected by the virus-induced slowdown in economic activity.

According to the DOF, this package consists of government initiatives to better equip health authorities in fighting COVID-19 and also for the relief and recovery efforts for infected people and the various sectors now reeling from the adverse impact of the lethal pathogen. —KG, GMA News