CARICOM heads of government are urging multilateral financial institutions to recognize the urgent need for assistance as countries advance towards recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In its communique yesterday following its Heads of Government meeting in Suriname this week, CARICOM said that COVID-19 remains a pandemic as a substantial number of cases are being reported across the region.
Heads stated that the pandemic’s impact has been felt in many areas, but particularly the educational sector as the ban on in-person school engagements affected the performance and overall development of the students in the community.
Hence, financial assistance will be critical in strengthening social safety nets that have been decimated by the support rendered to citizens during the pandemic. The Heads noted that there was genuine suffering and hardship being experienced by a significant number of people in the region.
Nevertheless, it was pointed out that responsible individual behaviours, vaccination, strengthened health systems and continued and enhanced vigilance, are all essential factors for successfully navigating through this current phase of the pandemic.
They agreed that measures should be put in place to reduce the impact of COVID-19 and by extension Long COVID, which could result in a significant increase in chronic illness and disability. They noted that Long COVID could further overwhelm the health sector particularly in countries that had a high burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NDCs).
As recovery from the pandemic advances, the Heads said that this is an opportunity to restructure health care services and public health programmes to respond to re-emerging and new diseases that cause pandemics by using the lessons that were learnt during the COVID outbreak.
CARICOM commended the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA)’s continued comprehensive response to COVID-19 in keeping with its mandate.
