Sierra Leone received an additional US$8.5 million grant to support affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. The funds will provide upfront financing to help purchase and deploy coronavirus vaccines, and to strengthen relevant health systems necessary for...
How Brunei Beat COVID-19
Brunei is one among few countries in Southeast Asian Countries that could avoid a massive surge in cases and deaths. Applying an aggressive strategy of proactive measures, Brunei has succeeded in containing the coronavirus where many of its better-known...
Vaccination targets the high risk groups in Malaysia
Vaccination targets the high risk groups in Malaysia. The scheduling process of COVID-19 vaccine includes taxi and e-hailing drivers as well as p-hailing riders, involving over 50,000 individuals in the service. For more information, please...
Malawi adds an additional $30 million for COVID-19 Vaccine rollout
The government of Malawi received an additional $30million to support the acquisition and deployment of safe, affordable and effective COVID-19 vaccines. This is an additional financing for the existing Malawi’s COVID-19 emergency response and health...
Civil Society petitions Malawi government on $40m for COVID-19 vaccines
A petition by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) was delivered to the Malawi government through parliament lobbying for a supplementary budget for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines, sufficient to reach 11 million individuals. The CSOs led by Aids Healthcare...
Thai cabinet approves 42-billion-baht for business affected by COVID
Thai cabinet has approved a 42-billion-baht package of financial assistance for people and businesses affected by the government's partial Covid-19 lockdown, currently implemented in Bangkok and nine other provinces to contain the coronavirus outbreak. For more...
Philippines now covers cartridge based PCR tests
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is now paying for SARS-CoV-2 testing using cartridge-based polymerase chain reaction or PCR tests. The new benefit package ranges from Php 1,059 to Php 2,287 and will be paid directly to the accredited testing...
Singapore approves $451,000 for people under vaccine injury scheme
Singapore approves a total of $451,000 to cover more than 100 individuals under the vaccine injury scheme. Of total applications, 102 applications were assessed by the Clinical Panel to have met the qualifying criteria for Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance...
Leveraging Primary Health Care Systems for COVID-19: Insights from Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program
The International Institute for Primary Health Care – Ethiopia (IIFPHC-E) is offering a new course entitled “Leveraging Primary Health Care Systems for COVID-19: Insights from Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program (HEP).” This short course is free for all and...
PHL administers 12.7 million coronavirus vaccines
The Philippines provides 12.7 million coronavirus vaccines to the population as of July 8. Fully vaccinated individuals consist of more than 1.16 million health workers, 861,560 seniors, about one million seriously ill people, and 103,990 essential workers. For...
Sri Lanka devises comprehensive mechanism to vaccinate majority of population before September
Sri Lanka plans to vaccinate a majority of the country’s population against the COVID-19 virus before September. The received vaccines in July will be made available to the public. The vaccine priority is given to the districts identified as high risk areas...
Thailand plans to use public funds to cover cost of home care for COVID patients
National Health Security Office, Thailand will cover costs of home care for asymptomatic or mild-symptom COVID-19 patients, aiming to reduce crowd in the hospitals, especially in Bangkok and metropolitan area. Home care includes online consulting with physicians,...
Malaysia announces massive COVID-19 aid package as Thailand tightens restrictions
Malaysia announced a public spending 150 billion ringgit ($36.2 billion) for aid and stimulus package to battle the COVID-19 outbreaks. Moreover, Malaysia plans to allocate another 1 billion ringgit ($241 million) to ramp up its inoculation program,...
Indonesia increases public funding for hospitals in critical condition due to Covid-19
Indonesia increases healthcare budget to 193.93 trillion rupiah ($13.39 billion) for coronavirus treatment, testing, tracing, drugs, vaccines and protective gear. In addition, telemedicine service has been introduced to non-critical patients, aiming to reduce pressure...
UN Socio-economic Assessment of COVID-19 in Ethiopia
The COVID-19 pandemic poses clear threats to Ethiopia’s reforms and relatively strong economic growth, with “wide-ranging and serious” according to a UN report. The report assesses the devastating social and economic dimensions of the COVID-19 crisis and sets out the...