Out of pocket payments for health poses a significant health financing challenge in Afghanistan as they put households at risk of incurring catastrophic health expenditure and potential impoverishment. This study measures and explains the drivers and impacts of this...
Kenya receives 4 million USD for syringe manufacturing
Amid looming shortfalls of syringes to administer COVID-19 vaccine, Kenya’s leading medical supply manufacturer, Revital Healthcare (EPZ) Ltd has received 4 million USD from development partners. This will help expand production of...
Kenya receives over 900,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines
In October, 2021 Kenya received a second consignment of 990,990 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine with help from the COVAX facility and the United States government. The first batch of 795,000 Pfizer vaccines arrived in September, 2021. With the second batch,...
Botswana ministry of health requires USD 97 million for COVID-19 response
The ministry of health and wellness, Botswana, requires an additional funding of USD 97 million as additional funding to cover the procurement of medical supplies, mainly vaccines and associated medical items such as syringes, needles and surgical masks. The fund...
Health financing for the COVID-19 response: Process guide for national budgetary dialogue
Overview This Process Guide lays out a sequenced set of analytics and actions to support reorienting budgetary arrangements to facilitate the ability of national governments to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by delivering therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccine...
Brunei’s Global Health Security Index Improvement in 2021
The Global Health Security (GHS) Index is an assessment and benchmarking of health security and related capabilities across 195 countries, aiming to inform foundation elements that need to be prepared for future pandemics. The GHS Index has six categories: (1)...
Australian Government now funds half the cost of rapid test for close contacts
To curb COVID-19 spending, the Australian Government stops providing free rapid antigen testing (RAT). However, tests are still freely provided for health reasons and partly subsidized for those who are considered close contacts. While discounted RAT for concession...
Joint external evaluation of IHR core capacities of the Kingdom of Cambodia
"This report is the product of a joint external evaluation (JEE) of the Kingdom of Cambodia’s capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health threats of a natural, deliberate or accidental nature. The assessment used the World Health Organization...
Japan braces itself against the COVID-19 pandemic with the largest ever budget for 2022
Japan's cabinet has approved a record ¥107.60 trillion budget for 2022 to fight against the pandemic and increasing social security costs. Social security spending is more than a third of the overall budget to address the medical needs of the aging population. The...
Sudan receives first shipment of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines
On Wednesday, the 6th of October, 2021 the Sudanese Ministry of Health received its first shipment of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines. The plan of the Sudanese government is to vaccinate at least 20% of its population, that is, 8.4 million people out of the total population...
Ghana receives additional USD 200 million financing for COVID-19 response interventions
The government of Ghana has received an additional USD 200 million financing towards the coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency preparedness and response project (EPRP). The amount will enable the government to fund the procurement of vaccines to inoculate about 7.6 million...
Booster dose trials started in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has started trials for the Covid-19 booster shots. The Pfizer vaccine booster shots would be administered to the frontliners and the elderly on priority. Bangladesh is planning a national roll-out of the booster dose soon. To know more, read a full...
Australian Government health spending increased by 5.6 % in the first year of COVID-19
In Australia, healthcare expenditure for Fiscal Year 2019-20 follows an upwards trajectory. As reported in Health Expenditure Australia 2019–20, government health spending increased by 5.6% due to COVID-19 pandemic surveillance programs, while non-governmental health...
Malawi contributes domestic resources to COVID-19 vaccine roll out
The government of Malawi, in a public statement, said that it contributes to the procurement and dissemination of COVID-19 vaccines in the country. During the routine weekly briefing, the Director of Communications, Sean Kampondeni said that even though...
Nepal reallocated health budget to response COVID-19
Nepal reported spending nearly half of the health budget to combat Covid-19 and address its impact on people’s livelihoods and the economy. To cover the costs, the government was forced to cut budget for various large hospitals in the country. Public health experts...