Guinea’s management of the fight against Covid-19 has been wholly satisfactory according to the African Development Bank which says all resources allocated to tackle the health crisis have been disbursed and all objectives of the Response Support Programme met.
Guinea has suffered less from the pandemic than some countries in the sub-region.
Is this situation due to the measures taken by the government?
This is what the AfDB’s suggested in a report.
According to a press release seen by APA on Friday, as part of the COVID-19 response support programme, the Guinean government has taken urgent and important health measures to counteract the trend observed and avoid a deterioration of the situation.
Furthermore, the authorities have implemented the “STOP COVID-19” strategy within 60 days with the aim of interrupting the chain of transmission in the region of Conakry, the capital.
Other decisions taken by the government have been to consolidate the country’s health system in order to improve the care of infected people while keeping other health services functional, the statement added.
Guinea has also exempted imports of health equipment and related products from duties and taxes.
This has facilitated an increase in reception capacity with 1,715 new beds installed in centres equipped with screening and care facilities for infected persons.
In order to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on the population, the government has implemented a cash transfer programme for the poorest households.
In addition, it has taken charge of water and electricity bills from April to June 2020 for subscribers to the social rate for more than 450,000 beneficiaries.
The private sector, which was severely affected by the closure of borders at the beginning of the pandemic, has also benefited from a plan to revive economic and commercial activities.
According to the AfDB, the government has granted a deferral of taxes for one quarter and cleared more than 1.1 billion Guinean francs (US$118,000) of debts to domestic suppliers.
Finally, more than 5,000 small and medium-sized enterprises received tax benefits and 252 companies received financing, saving some 3,693 direct jobs and approximately 10,000 indirect jobs.
These results were achieved in part thanks to a budgetary support of $34.56 million from the Pan African bank.
ARD/id/lb/as/APA