Deyalsingh: About $50m spent so far on covid19

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said about $50 million has been spent so far on covid19.

He was speaking on Monday at the virtual covid19 briefing.

He said he went to Cabinet months ago, and before covid19 reached TT, with a Cabinet note requesting $150 million for the Trinidad response across the four regional health authorities: North West, North Central, Eastern and South West.

The Tobago Regional Health Authority would have been given another $50 million for its response, he said.

He reported on Saturday during a sidebar with National Security Minister Stuart Young he asked the permanent secretary to run the figures on what had been spent so far.

"Up to Saturday the estimated spend so far is in the vicinity of $50 million. But we don't have that granular detail to tell you we spent X thousand dollars on contact tracing per person."

He explained there is a lot of "budget headroom" in $150 million for a variety of things including renting facilities, paying people, testing, personal protective equipment, ventilators and contact tracing.