Overview of Project:

The activities proposed under this Action are in response to the pandemic of COVID-19, in the first instance, and thereafter to support CARPHA in its role as the gatekeeper of regional health security, and its mandate to lead the health response to public health emergencies like COVID-19.

The African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Programme to strengthen health systems for universal health coverage is the umbrella agreement under which this Action is being undertaken. It has as one of its stated priorities the strengthening of health systems to ensure durable capacities for risk reduction, surveillance, and management of health risks.

Direct/immediate response to COVID-19:

• Procurement and distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to CMS, based on their needs, in response to COVID-19 and other Communicable Diseases
• Procurement and distribution of vaccines and/or other treatments for COVID-19 to CMS
• Strengthening diagnostic testing for Communicable Diseases, including COVID-19, at CARPHA and CARPHA Member States through the procurement of test kits, reagents and consumables as well as new equipment
• Support for management and implementation of quarantine and isolation procedures in CMS and of contact tracing for COVID-19 through capacity building and training
• Support for and promotion of the use of COVID-19 Guidelines and Protocols among public health professionals in CMS through capacity-building and training
• Development of two new modules of CR-FELTP:
  1. a virtual infectious disease simulation exercise which health practitioners can utilize to train in the principles of outbreak investigation;
  2. a course for medical practitioners who are on the frontline of dealing with patients

Other interventions to strengthen health systems in the region for health security in the region:

• Support for the implementation of recommendations of assessments of surveillance systems in the region
• Strengthening real-time visitor-based syndromic surveillance through the implementation of the Tourism and Health Information System (THiS) in CMS.
• Support for the implementation of CARPHA’s Biosecurity and Biosafety programme
• Support for the development and implementation of detailed International Health Regulations (IHR) country readiness and implementation plans using the IHR Joint External Evaluation (JEE) Tool
• Support for the execution of simulation exercises on responding to public health emergencies
• Strengthening of risk communication in CARPHA Member States through training in risk communication and the development/revision of country risk communication strategies
• Support for the conduct of research and/or studies on matters related to regional health security, to strengthen public health interventions to prevent, detect and control COVID-19 and other communicable diseases
• Support for the institutional strengthening of CARPHA

Media Releases

• CARPHA Supports Bermuda in Revamping a Safer and Healthier Tourism Industry
• Trinidad and Tobago Receives Donation of Medical Equipment from CARPHA
• CARPHA continues to focus on results-based management to achieve results for the Caricom region
• CARPHA Media Release Trinidad and Tobago Receives EU-Supported COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment
• CARPHA Media Release St Kitts Continued Partnership in the Fight against the COVID-19
• CARPHA Media Release Montserrat Receives Critical Personal Protective Equipment for Frontline Workers
• CARPHA Media Release Guyana Receives PPE from the EU Grant to Fight Against COVID-19
• CARPHA Media Release Grenada Receives PPE
• CARPHA Media Release Antigua and Barbuda Receives Donation of PPEs

Vax and Facts Social Media Campaign

CARPHA, through funding under the 11th EDF Programme of Support for Health Security Strengthening for Prevention and Control of Outbreaks of Communicable Diseases in the Caribbean, created a video campaign entitled “Vax and Facts”, to dispel myths about vaccines and provide the population of the Caribbean with simple, easy to understand facts about vaccination and its usefulness in mitigating the effects of disease. The “Vax and Facts: video series will be shared on CARPHA’s social media pages and through our internal and external networks such as the Regional Health Communication Network.