$198m in covid19 ex-gratia payments for health sector

THE Health Ministry says it has issued covid19 ex-gratia payments to over 24,000 health sector workers so far.

A press release by the ministry said that a total of $198,890,122 has been issued so far, equating to "over 95 per cent" of the estimated payment.

These payments have been made to ministry workers and workers at the regional health authorities.

In total, the payment is expected to be $205 million. The ministry said the process will be completed soon.

Medical workers got a collective total of $50,766,408, the nursing fraternity got $60,430,493, allied health – $20,905,579, administrative staff – $28,103,245, auxiliary – $26,900,546 and daily-paid workers – $11,783,852.

On Monday, Tobago Regional Health Authority (TRHA) CEO Simon Wiltshire confirmed the payments for Tobago healthcare workers have been processed and forwarded to the respective financial institutions.

In September, Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced in his budget a one-time $210 million ex-gratia payment to be shared by 20,000 health care workers.