Medical equipment urgently needed for fight against Covid-19, taskforce committee says

More medical equipment, including protective equipment, ambulances and medicines, are urgently needed for the fight to prevent and control Covid-19 in Laos, a taskforce committee has said.
Addressing the daily Covid-19 news briefing last week, a member of the National Taskforce Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, Mr Bounchom Oubonpaseuth, said there is a shortage of these items and they need to be urgently acquired.
All the needed items are estimated to cost as much as 33.52 billion kip.
Mr Bounchom, who is in-charge of the budgetary affairs of the committee, said the panel will seek permission from the government to spend 9.54 billion kip donated by various sectors, and another 23.98 billion kip from the state budget for the purchases.
The items to be purchased using donated money include 23 patient monitoring devices that will be distributed to central hospitals, 14 ventilators - seven for central hospitals and another seven for regional hospitals, and three ambulances with proper equipment for central hospitals.
The state budget will be used to purchase 20,000 alcohol hand-rub bottles (3,000 bottles for central organisations and 17,000 for regional organisations), some 20,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) kits - 10,000 PPE for central hospitals and another 10,000 PPE for local hospitals, five million face masks for central and local medical doctors and staff, and seven ambulances with equipment for provincial hospitals.
The government has allocated 30 billion kip to be spent on programmes and equipment to fight Covid-19. Of this amount, 23.38 billion kip have been spent as of May 6.
In addition, a number of individuals, businesses, state organisations, international organisations and friendly countries have provided assistance in cash and kind to the Lao government to support its efforts to prevent and control the virus outbreak and for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
From February 19 to May 6, the government has received assistance in cash amounting to more than 11.3 billion kip, US$488,390 and more than 2.5 million Thai baht.  
Assistance in kind amounting to 33.68 billion kip and US$2.08 million has also been received. The items comprised a wide range of equipment and supplies, including PPE, virus detection sets, face masks, medical equipment, isolation gowns, gloves, surgical masks, alcohol hand-rub, biohazard disposal bags and safety boxes.
The government has assured donors and partners it will make the most effective use of these supplies.
Mr Bounchom said the supplies and equipment have been distributed to central and local organisations, especially hospitals, health departments, border checkpoints and ministries whose staff are part of the mission to fight Covid-19.

By Souksakhone Vaenkeo
(Latest Update May 13, 2020)