U.S. delivers $255,000 in health equipment to The Bahamas

U.S. delivers $255,000 in health equipment to The Bahamas
The VIPs gathered for the donation, including (from the left): Mr. Andrew Edwards, PHA Board Chairman; Todd Sargent, Acting U.S. Political/Economic Chief; Clinton White, USAID Regional Representative; Minister of Health the Honourable Dr. Michael Darville; Terez Curry, President of the Bahamas Red Cross Society; Lyrone Burrows, Deputy Managing Director of PHA; Dr. Alvara Hanna, Public Hospitals Authority Medical Director (Photo credit: U.S. Embassy Nassau)

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The United States government has donated a total of $255,000 worth of health equipment to The Bahamas at the Public Hospital’s Authority.

Minister of Health Dr Michael Darville received the donation on behalf of The Bahamas from USAID Eastern and Southern Caribbean Regional Representative Clinton D. White on November 22.

USAID Representative Mr. Clinton White gives remarks upon delivering $255,000 in radio and laundry equipment to The Bahamas at the Public Hospitals Authority (Photo credit: U.S. Embassy Nassau)

The donation included twelve specialized ambulance radios and industrial-grade high-capacity laundry equipment. The radios will facilitate ambulance response to emergencies, and the laundry equipment will help increase the capacity of Princess Margaret Hospital to clean and sanitize bed linens and uniforms—an essential part of safely and effectively responding to ongoing COVID-19 cases.

White emphasized that the United States is a resolute partner to The Bahamas in the effort to defeat the pandemic and commended The Bahamas’ response to the pandemic.  He said: “I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge and salute the tremendous work that all the healthcare workers have been doing during this pandemic, including medical doctors, nurses, nurse aids, pharmacists, drivers, and clinic and healthcare assistants – thank you!”

The donation is part of an ongoing $750,000 dollar grant from USAID through the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Bahamas Red Cross Society. It is a grant that also included the $95,000 dollar BioFire Array Respiratory Diagnostic Machine the U.S. Embassy delivered in March. Since the start of the pandemic, the U.S. Government has provided $1.5 million to support The Bahamas’ response to COVID-19.

This support adds to the nearly 400,000 vaccine doses pledged by the Biden administration. On November 3, the U.S. Government delivered 134,550 Pfizer vaccine doses, supplementing the 128,700 doses delivered to The Bahamas on August 12.

If you have not yet received your COVID-19 vaccine, make your appointment today at https://vax.gov.bs.