Deyalsingh: Govt will provide healthcare funding needed for covid19

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh is assuring the public there will be "no financial challenges" in the fight against covid19 after the news of an increased budget deficit.

On Monday, Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced that the budget deficit has increased from $5.3 billion to an unprecedented $15.5 billion.

Asked about this at a virtual press conference on Tuesday, Deyalsingh said he has "absolute faith and confidence" in Imbert.

"Once covid19 started, you would have noted I took a note to Cabinet – maybe over a month or five or six weeks ago – where Cabinet, at that time, approved $157 million for the four regional health authorities in Trinidad to deal with covid19, and an additional $50 million was allocated to the Tobago Regional Health Authority.

"I must say that the priority set by the Honourable Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance clearly demonstrates that once any reasonable financial request is made for the parallel health care system, they will be fulfilled."

He said the ministry has got "everything they asked for thus far," and added, "That last Cabinet note also gives me the ability to come back to Cabinet in case we need more funding to prepare for the second and third wave. I see no financial challenges moving forward with covid19."