Bhutan has received $500000 in emergency grant assistance from the SAARC Development Fund (SDF) to boost the country’s response to the Covid019 pandemic. The amount is fifty percent of the total grant it will receive from the SDF.

Anuj Goel, the SDF’s officer-in-charge, on Wednesday handed the amount to Bhutan’s health secretary Pandup Tshering in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, reported Kuensel. The country would receive the second tranche once it spends at least 80 percent of the first tranche. 

 The fund would be used to procure intensive care units for the Covid-19 center, personal protective equipment, ventilator machines, testing kits, strengthen surveillance and training of health workers, Tshering informed. 

“We are glad that SDF is able to provide support to the member countries,” Goel said, adding the support would strengthen the pandemic response in Bhutan and augment the continuous efforts of all the member states towards protecting the people of the region.  

According to officials, SDF and the health ministry executed the project financing agreement this week, marking the project’s implementation.  

The project is funded under SDF’s social window.

SDF has received project proposals from seven of the eight Member States – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka for the Covid-19 grant.  

(SAM)