Grenada

Population: 112,523 

Official Language: English 

Currency: Eastern Caribbean Dollars

Official Language: English 

Currency: Eastern Caribbean Dollars 

Total Tests: 134,481

Total Confirmed Cases: 13,526

Total Recoveries: 13,101

 Active Cases: 211

Cumulative Deaths: 214 

Total Vaccine Doses Administered: 85,604

St. George’s, SEPTEMBER 08, 2022 (MIC) -

Grenada: going beyond COVID-19 impact on the economy, health and other areas

 Grenada had a change in government on June 23rd, 2022. The country is now under the management of the National Democratic Congress led by Dickon Mitchell who is also the Prime Minister. Previously, it was the New National Party and when it comes to the Covid-19 pandemic from every indication, there are some differences and techniques that will be employed to contain and control the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

The NNP was an advocate for the COVID-19 vaccine. The Ministry of Health partnered with donors such as PAHO and USAID for approved WHO vaccines to be available on the island publicly and privately, but the NDC approach is “we are leaving up to the people to choose.” This was announced by Health Minister Jonathan La Crette, an evangelical pastor and politician.

The southernmost island in the OECS, Grenada is known as the Isle of Spice and was among the last regional or Caricom member states to deal with its first outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19. This occurred in December 2020. By that time most regional states had at least two waves of the outbreak.

 The central point was an all-inclusive hotel in the south of the island which caused no more than 50 people to become infected. However, the second wave was in mid-August 2021 and this caused hospitalization and the start of COVID-19-related death. As of August 31st 2022, the cumulative number of deaths is 236 while the number of infected people stood at 19,403.

 Two years after the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a public health pandemic, Grenada’s economy is expected to remain on the path to recovery in 2022, barring any growth inhibiting factors such as the Russian-Ukraine war, adverse developments related to the coronavirus and global commodity price movements.

Within days of the pandemic declaration, Grenada’s Government also declared a state of emergency that shut down the country. Emergency regulations were put in place in accordance with the Emergency Powers Act. This resulted in the loss of revenue for the Government and the private sector.

Though citizens were encouraged to work from home, productivity was significantly reduced. The Government announced that projection shows that revenue will be reduced by 50%. By the new budget cycle of December 2020 Government said there was a loss of EC$100 million. Minister for Trade Oliver Joseph announced that the economy was in deficit.

A review of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank 2021 annual report which was published in July 2022 said that because of COVID-19 the island experienced the deepest recession in recorded history. This recession the ECCB said was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. (appendix attach)

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to have undesirable effects on Grenada’s fiscal position in 2021 prompting the Government to invoke the Escape Clause of the Fiscal Responsibility Legislation (FRL) for a second consecutive year and this will end in December 2022.

By the end of 2021, the public sector debt portfolio rose by $114.5m to $2,167.6m (71.6 per cent of GDP)  of which central government debt increased by $116.8m to $2,106.0m mainly to support its capital programme and to finance a second COVID-19 Economic Support Stimulus.

The latest public debt bulletin published in July 2022 shows that the total stock of public sector debt in Grenada at the mid-year mark of 2022 was EC$2,092.7 million.

The economy beyond COVID-19 and 2022

Head of State, Governor General Dame Cecile La Grenade in an address to mark the ceremonial opening of the 11th Parliament said, at present, the economy is facing an unprecedented level of uncertainty.

She explained that lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, new public health concerns such as the Monkeypox virus, Russia’s war in Ukraine, high and rising global inflation, global supply chain challenges, geo-political strains, and tighter financial market conditions, pose the greatest risks to the global economy, and by extension, Grenada’s macroeconomic and fiscal outlook.

Based on data collected for the first six months of this year, the economy is expected to register positive growth for 2022 and 2023, though the projection for 2023 is for weak growth given the global economic outlook. Total public debt at the end of June 2022 stood at 2.1 billion dollars or 66.2 per cent of GDP, and the full-year estimate is 67.6 per cent of GDP.

“Cognisant of the existing economic realities, my Government will pursue a path of prudent fiscal management to preserve credibility and safeguard medium-term fiscal and debt sustainability, while cushioning the impact of a harsh macroeconomic environment on citizens, especially the most vulnerable,” she said

The fiscal position of the Government is projected to improve in 2023 and over the medium term. The underlying objective of the Government’s medium-term fiscal strategy is to support its transformational agenda as promised in the 2023 election campaign while simultaneously safeguarding fiscal credibility and sustainability.

Health and COVID-19 beyond 2022

The previous New National Party government did not have a written policy or approved any legislation mandating vaccination for citizens as a means of controlling and containing the spread of COVID-19. Instead, it supported private sector entities that required workers to be vaccinated as part of the workplace requirements. Several workers lost their jobs in the immediate aftermath of returning to the new normal.

However, the new administration has made it clear that they will leave it up to citizens to decide their COVID-19 vaccination status. As a result, vaccination centres are no longer promoted and as of August 31st, the total fully vaccinated citizens was 38,792 or 34.3% of the population.

The U.S. Embassy in Bridgetown delivered nearly 4,800 pediatric doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to Grenada on Wednesday, July 27.  These highly effective, life-saving vaccines can be used for children ages 5-11.

This donation is in addition to the 98,000 vaccines already provided to Grenada by the United States through bilateral donations and donations made through the COVAX facility, which the United States supports with US$4 billion in financial commitments.

However, Education Minister David Andrew said that there will be no policy requiring students to be vaccinated and Government is leaving it up to the parents. It is not known the number of vaccines that had to be dumped because they expired without use.

Despite the continued slow uptake of the Coronavirus vaccines in Grenada, the Ministry of Health, Wellness, and Religious Affairs (MOHWARA) through the Community Nursing Department, continue to accept vaccines from friendly countries.

 On September 02nd The Ministry of Health, Wellness, and Religious Affairs received another batch of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Five thousand, eight hundred and fifty (5,850) doses of Pfizer vaccines and Six thousand, (6000) doses of the Moderna vaccines were donated to the Government and

People of Grenada by the Government of the Republic of Korea.

 Dr Shawn Charles, Chief Medical Officer has confirmed that the Ministry of Health has had to destroy a significant number of vaccines because they were expired and not used. He further highlighted that vaccination is mainly sought when it becomes a requirement for travel.

 New health minister Jonathan La Crette said that the COVID-19 pandemic has marginalised many persons and the resulting economic fallout, negatively affected the mental health of many, and heightened the risk for people already suffering from mental illness and substance use disorders.

In the first news conference of the Dickon Mitchell administration, La Crette said that mental health as a public health issue became a “pandemic within the COVID-19 pandemic.” He further gave assurance that measures will be put in place to assist those who need mental health services.

During the ceremonial opening of the 11th Parliament, Head of State Dame Cecile La Grenade said, “My Government is committed to combating the stigma of mental illness and intends to collaborate with stakeholders to create safe spaces, across the island, where afflicted persons may seek treatment and repose.’

She explained that one of the measures will be a project that will be conducted in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, including St. George’s University. “My government further intends to construct a new, modern public hospital with teaching facilities as the centrepiece of the development of the Education, Health, and the Wellness Sector,” she said.

No further information was provided about this initiative. However, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell in an interview after the ceremonial opening of Parliament said he is of the opinion that citizens need to take personal responsibility for their health and wellness.

New public health legislation

Dr Martin Francis, who previously served in the public service but is now operating a private clinic believes that one of the key initiatives Government must undertake is reviewing with a view to repealing and or amending all public health legislation.

‘Almost all the current public health laws should be amended and some definitely repealed. The transformation agenda will be impeded by some of them,” he said in response to questions about public health planning for the future.

Grenada’s quarantine act dates to 1958 while most other public health legislation was approved in the 1980s.

View from the Grenada Chamber of Industry and Commerce

Outgoing President Emmanuel Duncan ( We spoke with Duncan while he was President) said that the pandemic affected the business community in several ways including the loss of employees through death, retirement or resignation.

“The pandemic has created uncertainty for the business community and currently it is trying to curl its way back. It has impacted the small business community, real estate, accommodation and supporting services like farming, entertainment, and tours are among “the hardest hit,” said Duncan.

Grenada did not have a great resignation, but several employees left jobs and ventured on their own by opening small enterprises. Then there were those who left because they did not want to be vaccinated as part of the return-to-work policy adopted by the hospitality and other sectors.

Then there was a sudden shortage of supplies for all goods. Especially affected was the construction industry. Sourcing then became a major challenge. The lack of supplies in the regional and international markets continues to be a significant problem.

“Construction right now is still strong but a massive increase in cost for final production is resulting in major cost overrun. This in turn is leading to refinancing which is not always welcome by the banks,” Duncan said.

A construction estimate was done in 2019 or early 2020 or 2021 is no longer valid because of the increase in materials and if someone's loan was approved already, the banks are not always welcoming to those seeking refinancing,” he added.

Officially, the business community has approached the government seeking a reduction in freight because that cost is rising and is somewhat contributing to the increased cost of goods and some services. On September 06th 2022, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell announced that the cabinet will be approving a cap on freight. The cap will be for a period of six months and instead of using 2022 freight charges, customs will be reverting to the 2019 freight charges. He further explained that revenue loss for the period will be approximately EC$4 million.

COVID-19 and food security

The new government says that its transformational agricultural policy will focus on food security by supporting local production and bolstering agro-processing. “This policy feeds into my government’s overarching goal to reduce Grenada’s food import bill and nurture a society where citizens turn to local food sources,” Governor General announced on August 31st 2022.

“As such, a national campaign that highlights the quality and benefits of locally grown produce will also be explored as my government seeks to change the mindset surrounding imported food items,” she added.

Agriculture Minister Adrian Thomas recently told farmers that the aim of the government is to increase food production on government farms and to work along with farmers to increase the production of food and food crops. There is no breakdown available as to what will be the focus when it comes to food production. However, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said that the transformational agenda will include implementing a Spice Replanting Programme and Plant-a-Tree Campaign; Enhancing the Mirabeau Agricultural School; Restructuring the Marketing and National Importing Board, to focus on Agricultural Support, Marketing and Procurement Services in collaboration with farmers and commodity boards and Develop an Agro Processing Services Unit to provide advice, coordinate, and assist entrepreneurs in the development and packaging of their products.

St. George’s, June 13, 2022 (MIC) -

Grenada: COVID-19 effects, impact and recovery

 In March 2020 Grenada declared a state of emergency as part of its initiatives to control and contain the spread of COVID-19 among its population after the first case was identified. However, before the first case, hotels that employ thousands of workers were facing hundreds of cancellations and this left many employers sending home workers.

The government then announced an EC$50 million stimulus package but within days the country was into lockdown and citizens were restricted from moving freely.

In the short and medium-term as Grenada put measures in place to deal with the impact and ongoing recovery of COVID-19 as a public health pandemic, the island received millions in assistance from donors.

One of the actions taken by the Government almost immediately after the island went into lockdown was suspending the Fiscal Responsibility Legislation. That law makes provision for a certain section of the law to be suspended in the event of a natural disaster or public health pandemic.

Where the Minister has suspended any fiscal rule, target or corrective measure established under section 7 or 8, the Minister shall immediately prepare and lay before the Houses of Parliament for approval a recovery plan memorandum pursuant to subsection.

An economic recovery plan was presented to the Parliament in November 2021. However, it's well known that COVID-19 has had and continues to have devastating social recovery and therefore my piece will focus on the economic recovery plan and the unwritten social recovery plan.

“While the outlook for Grenada’s economy is expected to be favorable, considerable risks remain, including from the still-unfolding COVID-19 pandemic, an uneven and fragile global recovery, and natural shocks,” says the recovery plan.

Consistent with the requirements of Sections 10 (6) and (7) of the FRL the fiscal rules are set to resume from 2023. Currently public debt is projected to average 65.3 percent of GDP over the medium term, justifiably above the FRL’s target of 55.0 percent of GDP given increased borrowing of long-term concessional loans from multilateral creditors, which were disbursed in 2020 to address socioeconomic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finance minister Gregory Bowen informed the Parliament in his 2022 budget statement that Grenada’s economic recovery is well underway following the unprecedented decline of 13.8% in 2021. He said that the COVID-19 pandemic brought about unparalleled challenges for the island, creating macroeconomic instability and threatening to undermine years of socioeconomic progress.

“This recovery is slower than expected with real GDP growth of 4.8%, compared to the 6% originally projected. The recovery this year is driven by strong growth in several major sectors including construction (22.8%), agriculture (12.5%), wholesale and retail (4.4%) and financial intermediation (3.5%). Recovery in other major sectors, including hotel & restaurants, transport, storage, and communications, continue to lag behind,” he told the Parliament.

COVID-19 Impact on the social sector

Social Development Minister Delma Thomas in an address to commemorate International Family on 15th May 2022 said that the social hardship caused by the COVID-19 is one that the country is continuing to confront

“We recognise how women and girls have been particularly impacted. A surge in reported cases of physical, sexual, economic, and emotional abuse tell the stories of women who were trapped with abusive partners and unable to access needed services or support centres,” said while explaining that her ministry is more than ever, steadfast in carrying out its role to provide equitable and sustainable improvement in the quality of life of all citizens, especially the most disadvantaged. 

Some of the initiatives that will be undertaken as part of efforts to confront the various social scourge include the improvement of quality care services and safe spaces for survivors of abuse as well as training of responders to address survivors’ needs more effectively. 

“We will explore innovative ways to ensure that these services can be accessed equally by women throughout Grenada, Carriacou and Petit Martinique even during crises of pandemic proportions. Violence against women and girls is a symptom of a much broader problem of gender inequality,” said the Minister who disclose that more focus will be placed on developing of a Gender Equality Policy and Action Plan.

The Plan she said seeks to ensure that men and women have equal conditions and opportunities for realising their full human rights. We are thus committed to enhancing the capacity of the Ministry to implement this action plan and collaborating with other Ministries and stakeholders across multiple sectors to collectively address all areas of violence,” she said.

Recovery as seen through the MTAP  

The Finance Ministry has developed a Medium-term Action Plan which was prepared in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. The plan said that while the pandemic caused immense hardship at the individual level, at the macro level, it has not caused new development problems per se. 

“Instead, the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed and, in some cases, exacerbated long-standing challenges such as: poverty; vulnerability; gender, income and other inequalities; social and other inequities; a large informal sector that is overrepresented by women; weak health systems; an education system that is ill-prepared for the 21st century; inadequate focus on food and nutrition security; and inadequate social services and social protection systems,” said the Plan which is a companion document to Grenada’s National Sustainable Development Plan 2020-2035.

Fortuitously, the NSDP acknowledges these and other development challenges and proposes strategic actions to address them. As such, the strategic focus of the NSDP remains relevant as the adjustment are made to living with the pandemic as a public health endemic.

The NSDP is aligned to the SDGs, which remain an important framework to pursue sustainable and inclusive development. However, the fluidity of the COVID-19 crisis requires a resetting of some priorities.

Recent Funding as part of recovery

In May 2022, the World Bank's board of executive directors approved the financing of US$25 million for Grenada's First Recovery and Resilience Programmatic Development Policy Credit. Before the pandemic, Grenada's steadfast reform path to building economic resilience had attained solid growth, debt sustainability and poverty reduction. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused massive socio-economic impacts, which are expected to exacerbate the pre-existing vulnerabilities of Grenada as a small island developing state.

The financing will help support the country's recovery by promoting a greener and more climate-resilient economy, improving sustainability, and greater accountability of fiscal management.

Grenada also received World Bank funding for US$15 million to make the country's transport infrastructure more resilient to the impacts of climate change and natural hazards. The Grenada Resilience Improvement Project will finance interventions to protect principal transport corridors against coastal erosion fueled by sea-level rise and flooding at the crossing of the country's largest river.

On June 01st 2022 the World Bank announced that Grenada will strengthen its response to the COVID-19 pandemic with US$2.5 million from the World Bank. The funds will be used to increase testing capacity, equip health facilities, strengthen isolation capacity, and bolster surveillance activities.

The financing will be used to purchase critical supplies, including personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, medical equipment, laboratory equipment and tests, and goods and services to enhance preparedness and surveillance systems at ports of entry. The funds will also be used for the retrofitting of isolation areas, including a mobile unit, and the procurement of an oxygen generation plant.

These funds were accessed under the Contingency Emergency Response Component (CERC) of the ongoing OECS Regional Health Project which allow funds to be reallocated to address emergency response needs.

Click here for more.

Employer and workplace challenges and changes 

The biggest challenge that appears to be facing Grenada as employers and employees adjust to working with COVID-19 as another public health matter was the adoption of a policy mandating vaccination. 

No law was approved in the Houses of Parliament mandating vaccines but using existing public health laws private sector employers adopted a policy requiring only vaccinated to be allowed on certain compound. This was heavily enforced in the hospitality and private education sector – St George’s University.

Government embarked on a vaccination drive, but the response was slow until the country had its first outbreak in the third quarter of 2021. More than 35 of the workers at St George’s university took industrial action after the deadline set by the employers. A few lost their jobs.

There were similar mandates within the hotel and commercial sectors. George Mason, President of the Commercial and Industrial Workers Union said that not many of the workers whom his union represented were affected because vaccination was high among them. It was high because of the approach adopted by the Union and the management of the companies. There were a partnership with at least four doctors who engaged the workers in continuous education. The CIWU had no job lost recorded but some of the workers had to place on rotation because of the slow. Though the workers were on rotation they did not lose income.

It was a different picture with the Grenada Technical and Allied Workers Union. Some workers protested vaccination mandate to continue employment and they lost their jobs. The Union also reported that some of its workers had salary adjustment where they only received 60% because they were placed on rotation. 

It must be noted that since Grenada lift restriction on April 04th 2022 employers claims of losing jobs because of vaccination were not heard because the lifting of restriction meant that body vaccinated and unvaccinated can mingle together. However, companies are still allowed to adopt vaccination policy. 

Public views on COVID-19 restriction and current lifting of restriction:

Ritchie Ollivierre – businessman: The recovery is steady; I think the government did a good job during the early days to have it under control. Now that we are at the stage where we are recovering from COVID-19 effects I am seeing the economic situation turning around.

Maryam Tawfiq – media workers: In the early days of COVID-19, the restricted had me a bit frustrated but I refocus and started a little flower garden project that I turned into a business. It affected by livelihood in the start but now i got a small business.

Kassandra Mitchell – Civil society: The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly exacerbated, accelerated, and further exposed global challenges. For civil society, COVID-19 also meant new challenges. “One of the main challenges, in addition to what governments did [imposed restrictions on civic space], is that many donors and governments who had supported our work suspended our grants or redirected funding. This caused many civil society organisations to put their activities on hold, and many in the sector lost their jobs.

St. George’s, Feburary 20, 2022 (MIC) -

Focus on the impact of the COVID-19 on the Public Healthcare System

Where is Grenada?

Located 12°07′N 61°40′W, Grenada belongs to the Windward Islands and is an independent island state within the Commonwealth of Nations. The current population is estimated at 112,000 but that figure is expected to change in a few months. This is because of the ongoing census which started in 2021, is scheduled to conclude in April 2022. 

Like all states, territories and islands around the world, Grenada began feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. At that time, the island was on tract to surpassing projected revenue for the first quarter of 2020 when compared to the same period in 2019.

However, in late March 2020 Government declared a state of emergency, shutdown the country from commercial air traffic and enforced a curfew which restricted the movement of citizens. The lockdown restricted was island wide with parish border control.

Special permission was grant to persons described as essential workers. These workers include national security personnel, medical care personnel, Parliamentarians, staff at the ministries of legal affairs, social development and the ministry of Finance as well as media workers.

Grenada reported its first COVID-19 death in January 2021 and there were no other deaths until August 29th 2021. The island has very few positive cases and all incoming passengers at to be quarantine and tested upon arrival. Grenada began its vaccination programme in February 2021. 

The island’s luck turned in mid-August with the first the outbreak community spread in mid-August 2021 – days after thousands of citizens gathered to participated in carnival like activities. Though both Houses of Parliament approved legislation banning/cancelling carnival, which is traditional held in the month of August, the order was defied. 

Health Minister Nickolas Steele and Dr Shawn Charles, Acting Chief Medical Officer announced on August 17th 2021 that the country was experiencing a significant increase in COVID-19 positive cases and the Ministry of Health had spent more than EC$1 million for testing supplies.

“Thousands of our citizens are now confirmed as positive since mid-August and testing supplies had to be purchased to conduct this mass testing and so far, more than EC$1 million have been spent on testing supplies since this mid-August,” said Health Minister Nickolas Steele. He said that all purchases are procured bilaterally or through the COVAX.

At the peak of the outbreak there were more than 200 positive cases per day and the positivity rate was as high as 50%. Dr Charles indicated that the expected that 50% of the country will become infected

Health authorities then declared community spread of the disease and mass testing was being conducted as part of the Ministry of Health strategy to contain, control, and reduce further transmission of the virus. Individuals who are positive are required to quarantine and or isolated themselves. During that period there was some no movement weekend expected for testing and vaccination.

At the time of the outbreak Dr. Carol McIntosh, Director of Hospital Services said that the key to reducing infections and severe illness from the virus is vaccination. Health Authorities are hoping to have 70-80% of the population vaccinated to prevent further spread of COVID-19 and death from the virus.

“The key is vaccination,’’ said McIntosh, who also emphasized the need to observe health measures such as wearing masks, physical distancing, and hand sanitizing.

As more and more citizens became infected, health authorities made a plea for help and the Mexican Government, the Cuban Government along with Grenadians who are working in the healthcare system in the diaspora came forward.

A medical team from Mexico and another from the USA joined the medical team at the General Hospital to strengthen the delivery of essential healthcare services as the island continued to battle with increase infection, hospitalization and death from COVID-19. By the conclusion of the first wave 200 persons died.

There were three doctors and nurse practitioners from Mexico and they were sent as a result of a bilateral request to the Mexican Government; there was also a team from Cuba while the team from the USA was coordinated by Grenadian Dr Phillip Bonaparte who resides in the US.

Besides the two teams, St George’s University which has graduated thousands of doctors over the years also began tapping into their alumni – especially Grenadians who were no working at US hospitals.

In a news conference in February 2022, Health Minister Nicholas Steele admitted that during that first wave the island’s healthcare system was on the verge to collapse.

“We regard to the effects of COVID-19, it has been significant …we survive the wave last year, our delta wave but I will be the first to admit and I know and Dr Donald can tell you we came very close, like most other nations to collapsing, which was what we are trying to avoid always.

It was a lot of pressure on the team, on the facilities etc. We have seen other nations that have succumb too, but we have watch and we have learnt, we bolstered, and we put support here we had too and we came through. We lost a lot of Grenadians, unnecessarily, I think,” he said. 

However, on the brighter side, Dr. Tyhiesia Donald; Chief Medical Officer (Ag.) said that the wearing of mask has reduce on the number of persons seeking care at the hospital for traditional respiratory illness such as asthma and seasonal allergy reaction from pollens etc.

Effects of COVID-19 on healthcare staff

Hundreds of medical staff such as nurses, doctors and auxiliary staff was not only exposed to the coronavirus and had to be quarantine but became infected and tested positive for COVID-19. Dr McIntosh admitted that the staff at the hospitals were significant affected and the administrators were making staffing adjustments. 

Because of the adjustment, she disclosed that elected surgeries had to be put on hold because of the outbreak. It is not known if anyone died because of failure to receive required surgery. 

There were no known deaths among hospital staff, but the Ministry of National Security through the Police Force and the Prison was heavily impacted. Officers of the Police were among those who died. At one time, approximately 20% of the police force were either in infected and had to be isolated or exposed and had to be quarantine. Click here for more.

A new temporary prison was established for those who violated the law and had to be incarcerated. The declaration was gazette on September 24th 2021. “This is a temporary mechanism to serve as a halfway point for people sentenced or remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison who may be positive for COVID-19. The predominant purpose of this measure is to remove the risk of sending positive cases into our prison that can potentially infect the population,” said Edvin Martin, Commissioner of Police said when asked to explain the reason why building number three of the Grand Anse Campus of St George’s University is declared a prison and lock up.

What external assistance was sought/received? 

The U.S. donates over 69,030 COVID-19 Pfizer Vaccines to Grenada. These Pfizer vaccine shipments was part of the United States Government’s donation of 1.2 billion safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for the world through the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) initiative – to which the United States is the largest donor. U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission David Schnier joined Minister of Agriculture Peter David at the Maurice Bishop International Airport to welcome the vaccines. (go to Attach 1 for more on this) 

OECS Regional Health Project: 

This project was approved by the World Bank in August 2019. Total project cost is US$6.0 million (EC$16.1 million). The OECS Regional Health Project aims to improve the resilience of health facilities in Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to climate change. It will strengthen the capacity of health systems to ensure continuity of services following an extreme weather event. 

In Grenada, the project involves upgrading of several health facilities, namely the Mt. Gay Psychiatric Hospital, the St. David Health Center, the Rathdune Center, and Phase 1 of the General Hospital. Work will also be undertaken to upgrade the Public Health Laboratory at the General Hospital to achieve Tier 1 Accreditation, to enhance country compliance of International Health Regulations, and to strengthen the National Health Emergency Response Operating System. 

Grenada will also benefit from funding allocated by the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the OECS Commission to strengthen the surveillance system, planning and response to health emergencies. This project has become critical as the region collaborates efforts to combat COVID-19 and the exogenous social, psychological, and economic impacts during 2020 and 2021. Implementation of the different components and subcomponents at the national and regional levels are ongoing and will ramp up in 2022.

Grenada’s Ambassador to CARICOM, Mr. Arley Gill made a donation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and some medical devices to assist in the fight against COVID-19 in his home parish, St. John.

Ambassador Gill’s donation to the Gouyave Health Centre on October 8. He explained that the donation of medical gears resulted from an effort he led among  Grenadians in the United States to gather much-needed medical supplies and accessories for healthcare providers responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The exponential increase in COVID-19 cases led to an increased demand for PPEs.

Are there concerns about the physical integrity of existing facilities? 

Concerns about the physical infrastructure of community health centers and clinics are always expressed over the years with some having to such down completely or relocated. One example is the Mt Moritz community health center. 

Click here for more on video 

On the western side of the island, the main health center which is the Gouyave health center was relocated for many years while a new structure was under construction. The building was complete but was not yet ready for commissioning but because of outbreak of COVID-19 the new structure is now the designated testing facility on the western side as of Monday, September 27. They are using top floor of the ultra-modern Gouyave Health Centre. Click here for more.

St. George’s, December 13, 2021 (MIC) -

How COVID-19 impact students, nutrition, child labor, and birth rate in Grenada

 The most southern of the OECS member states, Grenada has an approximate population of 112,000, and children make up a significant portion of the population. According to the Worldbank data, 25% of Grenada’s population is estimated to be between 0 and 18 years old.

 As a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Grenada’s law defines a child as any person 18 and under. Grenada signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990.

 Article 28 of the convention says that State Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall among other things: Make primary education compulsory and available free to all; Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need; Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means; Make educational and vocational information and guidance available and accessible to all children and take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates.

 Education is mandatory in Grenada for children between 5 and 16 years old. Government Primary school is free and well attended, and there is good access to secondary schools. Collectively, there are approximately 23,000 students attending, pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools.

Schooling and the pandemic 

 Globally, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020 and that announcement affected the school system in various ways. Almost two years into the pandemic, schools are yet to return to normal.  

Schools were in the middle of the second term in 2020 when the Government made the decision to declare a State of Emergency with a curfew. Schools under the direction of the Ministry of Education adopted the strategy of “schooling using technology devices with a focus on social media platforms. Teachers send classwork and students had to follow instructions in textbooks with the help of parents.

 A press release dated March 13th, 2020 said “With the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, this circular therefore informs of options which can be utilized to support learning for students of compulsory school age, who may be adversely affected by the situation as it evolves. 

 In this regard, all stakeholders are asked to note that the IT Unit has presented the social media platform WhatsApp as a viable delivery mechanism for bringing e-learning resources to our students. 

 While the use of WhatsApp is encouraged as the first option, it is not the only option available to schools. In schools where other e-learning platforms are already being utilized or have been deployed, their usage should be embraced. Additionally, the use of safe websites and other online services is to be promoted.” (More can be found at Annex 1)

Following the announcement that technology and social media platforms will become the focus for delivering education, the Ministry of Education announced that the Government will be purchasing tablets devices for students.

 By September of 2020 hundreds of students were receiving tablet devices to assist with virtual learning and then it was realized that not all homes had internet facilities. Concerns citizens especially in some rural areas were willing to share WIFI passports with students.

 Sixteen months after the technology became the main source for educating students the Ministry of Education conducted a survey on the impact of virtual learning and the findings of the ministry were not in the best interest of students.

 Education Minister Emmalin Pierre said in a news conference: “There are students who have not been engaged in remote learning activities with their teachers and in some cases those who participated it was observed that several students had low performance and some teachers had lessons that were of poor quality due to constraints of the virtual environment.”

 ‘We realize that there are early learners who require guidance; Low performing students who require additional support; Students with Special Education Needs Teachers who are not reporting for duty and Teachers whose lessons are of poor quality due to constraints of the virtual environment,” she shared.

 Speaking about Behavioural Concerns Associated with Remote Learning, the Minister said that insufficient parental control and unsupervised students are not good for both teachers and students.

 There are teachers who are stressed because of the inability to reach students in the virtual setting. It was also observed that there is abuse in all its formats of physical, verbal, emotional, and neglect of minors by older siblings and relatives as well as incidents of attempted suicides.

 Sexual abuse of minors was also evident as there were at least 3 known cases of pregnancy among primary schools. The age for primary school students is 3 to 14.

 The Minister also disclosed that the total number of teachers was 1551 but the total number of teachers submitting remote learning data were 1086 making the Percentage of teachers submitting remote learning data to be at 70.0%

 As of September 2021, due closer for the start of the 2021/2022 school year President of the Teachers Union Jude Bartholomew said in an interview with MTV News Grenada that teachers should be exempted from returning to school before the start of the new school term to engage in preparatory work as it can create an unsafe environment for both teachers and students and can ultimately defeat what Government is trying to achieve.

 At the time of the pronouncement, Grenada was in the midst of the COVID-19 spike. By November 01st the cases had peaked, and classes adopted a staggered approach of online and face-to-face learning.

Parents have had mixed reviews for the blended approach to the new learning environment involving both technology and in-person. A parent with children in primary, secondary as well as a TAMCC- the island’s lone community college.

One parent, Kwana Francis pointed out the bigger children adjusted better because they had a better understanding of the global pandemic, and they still continue to adjust but the young children suffered and continue to suffer from a lack of concentration. “They do not see me the parent as a teacher and just could not bother with me teaching them. They just wanted to be in the classroom. Almost two years after, the best days are the days they go into the classrooms,” she said.

 “When I look at the environment, I see a future where children who are slow at learning will be heavily disadvantaged. The traditional classroom cannot be replaced with virtual learning the impact is just different,” she said.

 In November 2021, Health officials said that students attending public schools in Grenada will be attending classes in line with the physical distancing protocol as measures to contain and control the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

 “At present, we do not have any evidence of any community spread of COVID in Grenada, we have no clusters under investigations either, in the present circumstance the Ministry of Health supports the full reopening of schools,” said Dr. Shawn Charles, Acting Chief Medical Officer during the weekly post-cabinet briefing on Tuesday.

 “We do recognize that schools play a very important role in the development of children, the longer the schools remain closed the greater the risk-off a reversal in the educational gains that have been made and of course you limit the children development with regards to education and otherwise,” said Charles, flanked by members of the National COVID-19 Response Committee.

 “We know that the longer schools remain closed the greater the risk for our children. There will be higher rates of dropouts, some children will simply fall off the radar, we know that when children are home unsupervised, they are vulnerable, they are at an increased risk of violence and exploitation,” he added.

The incidence of child abuse

 During its first-quarter news conference for 2021, the Royal Grenada Police Force disclosed that data from its Sex Crime Unit is showing that most men charged for sexually related offenses involving minors are above the age of 50 and the minors are under the age of 8.

 “A major concern from the data that we collected is accused persons over 50 years of age and the victim eight years and under. We had an accused 59 years who victim was three years; we had an accused 51 years, the victim 5 years; an accused 50 years the victim six years; accused 57 years the victim seven years,” said Inspector Maureen Stanislaus of the Sex Crimes Unit of the RGPF.

 “These incidents are persons who were known to the victims, they were not strangers,” said Stanislaus who shared the data during the 2021 first quarter briefing of the RGPF. “This is of great concern to us, we need members of the community to help us to reduce these incidents,” she said.

 So far, all the victims for the men above 50 are females and the crimes fall in the category of indecent or sexual offenses. Incident offenses are mainly exposing the body parts and touching of breast, buttocks, etc while sexual offenses include oral sex, use of object or fingers to penetrate the vagina and or anus of minors.

 For the first quarter of 2021, the Sex Crimes Unit recorded 51 reports when compared to 2020 when there were 33 reports - an increase of 64.7%. “Of that number our concern and the concern of the RGPF is the age group 11 to 16. In 2021 of the 51 reports received 26 reports were of the age group 11 to 16 as compared to 2020 where there were 33 reports and 16 was from the age group 11 to 16,” she said while calling on the public to continue reporting known or suspected incidents to her Unit. The age of sexual consent in Grenada is 16.

 The issue became a topic of discussion between Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell and education officials. He is concerned about the growing number of child abuse incidents in Grenada and is suggesting that the relevant persons convene a session to determine an approach to tackle this social scourge.

 “There is a lot of abuse in the education system; a lot of children are being used by vicious characters who have no regard for the children that they hurt. When someone is damaged at a young age, it is difficult for them to get back on track, therefore we must seriously address this issue,” Dr. Mitchell said in a meeting with senior staffers in the Ministry of Education.

 Suggesting that a meeting be convened among the relevant persons to determine the way forward, a news release from the Government Information Service said that the issue of sexual exploitation of minors was one of the main talking points at a meeting with senior education officials, as the Prime Minister continued his series of ministry engagements.

The assizes list for October 2021 shows that more than one-third of the cases are against children.

Employment of child labor to boost household incomes

 Cyrus Griffith, Labour Commissioner says that there no reported cases of child labor since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic but there has been the tradition of children assisting parents on Saturday market days.

 A visit to any of the main towns on market days especially on Saturday will see a few children above the age of 12 engaging in selling fruits and vegetables. There is no evidence that the practice has increased because of COVID-19.

Birth rates and child mortality and Nutrition issues, and children

 Data on the Central Statistics Office website has revealed that Grenada recorded 1526 live births and 26 infants’ deaths in 2020 while for the first time since 2000 more than 1000 persons died.

 The data which covers the twenty-year period 2000 to 2020 shows a constant dwindling of live births. In the year 2000, there were 1883 live births and by 2017 that figure reduced to 1398. The least number of infant deaths was in 2008 when nine was recorded but during the twenty-year period, the average number of infant deaths was 25. The highest number of infant deaths was 36 and it occurred in the year 2002.

 A breakdown by sex shows that more males are born annually and at the same time more males die as infants and as adults. In 2020 the number of males born at the various facilities was 776 while the number of females was 750.

There is no indication that the first year of lockdown resulted in more births. However, speaking with several pharmaceutical distributors, there is data to show that there was an increase in the purchasing of Morning after pills and pregnancy tests whenever there is a period of lockdown.

Nutrition and children

 Speaking with Lichelle Murray, Communications Officer of the Grenada Food and Nutrition Council she said that a comparative survey undertaken by the Council in 2019, 2020, and the early months of 2021 has revealed that children under five are not enjoying the best dietary care.

The daycare survey findings show almost 10% of children are overweight and there is also an increase in wasted

• 2019 - 6.5% overweight,

• 2020 - 5% overweight

• 2021 - 8.2% overweight

 There was also an increase in "wasted"-meaning not enough weight for their length or height

• 2019-1.6%,

• 2020-0.6%,

• 2021-1.3%

 The pandemic was declared in 2020 and the survey conducted in late 2020 shows and an increase in anemia among 1-year olds

• 2019-50.25%

• 2020-61.5%

 Antenatal anemia also increases in 2020

• 2019 – 4%,

• 2020-4.3%

 While there was a huge jump in postnatal anemia

•  2019-3.8%,

• 2020-10.1%

 There was an increase in low-birth-weight babies according to data from the General Hospital

•  2019-142,

• 2020-151

 However, on a positive note, there was an increase in exclusively breastfed babies between the ages of 0-6 months

• 2019 - 42%,

• 2020 - 49%

Murray said that increase is the highest the council saw for the past 5 years.

St. George’s, September 1, 2021 (MIC) -

The impact of COVID-19 on agriculture with specific reference sustainability food security

 Grenada declared the State of Emergency in late March 2020 and the country’s border was lockdown within days as the Caribbean and world grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 Realizing the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, in April, the Cabinet approved the appointment of seven sub-committees as part of the Task Force for Rebuilding the Grenadian Economy.

The sub-committees were identified based on the productive sectors and Cabinet also approved the appointment of chairpersons for each sub-committee.

 These sub-Committees were: Tourism and Citizenship by Investment (CBI), chaired by Ms. Patricia Maher; Construction (Private and Public), chaired by Hon. Gregory Bowen; Education Services – St. George’s University, chaired by Hon. Emmalin Pierre; Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, chaired by Hon. Oliver Joseph; Agriculture and Fisheries, chaired by Mr. Fitzroy James; Wholesale & Retail Trade & Manufacturing, chaired by Hon. Anthony Boatswain and E-Commerce/Digitisation, chaired by Mr. Richard Duncan.

 Delivery the 2021 Budget in late November 2020, Finance Minister Gregory Bowen said that agriculture, construction, wholesale and retail sectors will drive the economic recovery as the island put structures in place to deal with the many fallouts from the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.

 Even before that public announcement in the Parliament, agriculture was already acknowledged as one of the areas that needs priority focus because of its link to sustainable food security. This sentiment became a continuous talking point on radio and television talk shows. However, consultation undertaken with farmers and other stakeholders by the Government exposed some of the wider challenges facing the sector. 

Disruptions from lockdowns and wider issues related

The 2021 mid-year review for Grenada, as conducted by the Ministry of Finance says that Agriculture & Fishing Preliminary data for the first half shows mixed results for the agriculture sector for this year compared to the same period in 2020. There were reductions in the production of nutmeg and mace of 2.0 and 27.3 percent respectively. Nutmeg production was relatively low for the first half of 2021 partially due to lower-than-anticipated rainfall. 

Notwithstanding, participation in the sector increased as persons unemployed as a result of the impact of the pandemic used the resource-rich subsector as a vehicle for revenue generation. Despite several challenges, the Marketing and National Importing Board (MNIB) increased its purchases of fresh produce (excluding bananas) by 4.3 percent during the period under review. 

The MNIB has been experiencing challenges that have reduced its capacity to maximize sales and purchases and ultimately improve its performance. These included increased competition in the banana market, the emergence of new local agents for the sale of fresh produce in the local market, and trade barriers. 

“These barriers were limited air cargo capacity and reduced international flights directly affecting MNIB’s ability to export fresh produce internationally, thus affecting its local purchasing patterns. Nonetheless, MNIB purchases give a fair indication of production of fresh fruits, vegetables, and root crops during the period,” said Afia Joseph, General Manager of the MNIB. 

Cocoa production according to the report was extremely strong in the first half of 2021, increasing by 35.3 percent - the highest it has been for this period since 2016. Moreover, the price of cocoa increased to $4 per pound, the highest price recorded since 2014. These developments have led to an increased interest by farmers in cocoa production, reflected by an increase in requests for cocoa cards from the Grenada Cocoa Association.

The price and availability of agricultural inputs

Some of these challenges included shortage or unavailability of seeds, seedlings, pesticides, and other important supplies for planting crops. When shipments of supplies started returning to the country, farmers soon discovered that there were significant increases in the cost of supplies. 

This increase in supplies is linked to increasing costs for transportation, oil, and freight on the international market.

Commenting on this issue in the Upper House of Parliament, Senator Roderick St Clair who is Agriculture and Fisheries representative in the Upper House of Parliament disclosed that there were suspicious among farmers that some suppliers were engaging in unfair pricing of supplies.

This increase in production cost has resulted in an increase in the final consumer items. In the supermarket fresh produce, for example, increased by an average of more than 30% while roadside and market vendors varied between 10% and 30%. 

For example, Tannia, from the market and roadside vendors were sold at EC$4 per pound but is presently sold EC$7. In Supermarkets, tannia is presently EC$5.50 per pound, it used to be EC$4.50. In supermarkets and vendors, Ripe Banana was EC$1.50 now its EC$2 and EC$2.50 respectively; Plantain which was EC$1.50 is now EC$1.85 and EC$2.00 respectively and Pumpkin which was EC$1.75 is now EC$2.35 and EC$3.00 respectively.

Food imports and the food supply chain

Despite the availability of fresh produce, importation of food did not hit a major dent because people were purchasing twice or three the amount as a result of panic purchasing because of the belief that there will be a scarcity of food. In 2019, Grenada’s food importation bill was some EC$350 million. 

In December, it was disclosed via a news item on a website from Belize had sent its first shipment of poultry to the island and that resulted in Senator St Clair calling for the protection of the local poultry industry.

Under the title “We need to produce affordable poultry for our food security” the release issued on 26th December 2020 said: “This week, Belize made its historic entry into poultry exports in the Caricom region by sending its first-ever shipment of chicken meat to Grenada.”

Senator St Clair said that he was frightened by this new development. “My response is that we urgently need support to produce affordable poultry for our food security. The survival of Grenada’s poultry industry businesses is being threatened. Ongoing and new investments in poultry production in this country must be supported to be viable, and to be able to compete with imported products,” he said.

He feels that the survival of several local businesses is threatened, with feed prices contributing over 60% to the cost of production. “Our local poultry farmers already find it difficult to compete with imported poultry,” he added. The Ministry of Trade says that Grenada imports more than EC$30 million in poultry products annually.

In September 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture issued the following release with regards to poultry availability on the island. Under the caption, Ministry of Agriculture Takes Measures to Alleviate the Shortage of Eggs on the Local Market the release said in part that the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, and Forestry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Consumer Affairs engaged the Grenada Association of Poultry Producers and other stakeholders and has identified a number of interim measures to address the shortage of eggs on the local market.

Preliminary information has confirmed a shortage of eggs, which is attributed to the widespread impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which has had a direct influence on business continuity within the poultry sector.

Click here for full release .

In a recent virtual discussion, held for Friends of the Earth-Grenada’s 30th anniversary, food security in Grenada and elsewhere was a major issue. Senator St Clair reiterated the call for a return to kitchen gardens and also for more sustainable practices in the wider sphere of agriculture. He also emphasized the importance of working in partnership across agencies to ensure that the most vulnerable are protected, a practice adopted by the Zero Hunger program which works alongside local farmers to supply schools with fresh produce and the Food and Nutrition Council, and several ministries in supporting families on low incomes. Senator St Clair also indicated that he will be working alongside Grenada. Click to read the complete release .

Other initiatives for food sustainability and increase sustainability

IICA’s Gardeners Network

In 2021, IICA’s Project titled “Soil-centric actions for strengthening food system resilience and promoting regenerative agriculture for the Caribbean” established a Backyard Gardeners Network Initiative (BGNI) which aims at strengthening the technical capacity of community members to increase food production in their backyards.

The idea is for this to be done in an organized and sustainable manner having due consideration for the continuous use of small parcels of land for the growth of various crops. This will be achieved through the establishment of a demonstration plot for training purposes and the provisioning of small tools and supplies to the backyard gardeners. A certificate of attendance was awarded to the participants who were trained in backyard gardening.   

A network of backyard gardeners over the age of 18 years and consists of both male (6) and female (30) members was established for the sharing of knowledge and best practice. The group is growing gradually with the majority of participants from St Andrew and St George. 

 “This platform could serve to assist with the marketing of products among the members of the network. The project comes to an end in December however, it is envisaged that it could be upscaled to include other key elements of the backyard through national projects to acquire grant funding for the continued development of backyard gardens in Grenada,” says Derek Charles head of the IICA Office in Grenada.

 Alternatively, the possibility exists for some level of synergy between this Backyard Gardeners Network Initiative (BGNI) and the backyard garden project being financed through Grenada's Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Grant Fund.

SAEP COVID-19 Backyard Gardening Initiative

On Wednesday, September 15th, 2021, the Climate Smart Agriculture and Rural Enterprise Programme (SAEP) commenced its collaborative initiative towards the distribution of seedlings, tools, and nutritional booklets to vulnerable families in Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique. 

 The initiative commenced in the parish of St. Andrew with over 60 families receiving inputs and seedlings. The families were selected based on the family as well as the presence of unemployed family members within the home. However, the focus was on providing assistance to the single-headed households. 

The packages included seedlings: Tomatoes, Seasoning Pepper, Lettuce, Cabbage, Pak Choi, Kale, Chives, Thyme and Celery, Watering Cans, Hand fork, Trowel, Herbs and Recipe Booklets completed by the Grenada Food and Nutrition Council. This Initiative was officially launched by SAEP and the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands in September of 2020 at the Cadrona Home in La Fillette, St. Andrew.

SAEP is committed to providing over 350 vulnerable families with the knowledge, skillset, and required inputs to promote nutrition-rich Climate-Smart foods especially within this pandemic environment through our collaboration with our implementing partners Ministry of Agriculture and Lands and Ministry of Carriacou and Petite Martinique Affairs.

 Agri-Food Sector Development and Strengthening of the National Food Safety System in Grenada

 The European Union and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), in collaboration with the Grenada Bureau of Standards and the Marketing and National Importing Board, launched the project ‘Agri-Food Sector Development and Strengthening of the National Food Safety System in Grenada.’

 This is a EUR 8.75 million resource which will seek to enhance Grenada’s national quality infrastructure and to strengthen Grenada’s obligations to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the area of Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Measures for food safety.

 Grenada is the sixth beneficiary of the CARIFORUM-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) Standby Facility for Capacity Building, which is financed by the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) and administered by the CDB. The Marketing and National Importing Board, the main beneficiary, will receive three refrigerated trucks. While the Grenada Bureau of Standards and the Ministry of Agriculture will benefit from training in the areas of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) and post-harvest handling techniques.

Challenges attributable to climatic events and natural disasters

The months of June to November is traditionally the rain or wet season or hurricane season and like all other Caribbean islands, Grenada received a mix of sunny days and wet days from the start of the pandemic. 

One of the challenges is sudden flash floods which tend to wash away crops. In some cases, these are ready to reap above the earth crops or crops that were recently planted and in the process of maturing.

Praedial Larceny 

This is an ongoing problem despite amending legislation and the establishing of a special unit within the Royal Grenada Police Force to focus on that area. Among the people charged for praedial larceny included a policeman and farmers. Though a survey was never conducted, former Agriculture Minister Yolande Bain-Horsford said that thousands are lost to thieves annually.

See more on this story at the link.

St. George’s, August 12, 2021 (MIC) -

Grenada’s status within the Gavi Alliance and its impact on Covax supplies. 

Grenada is one of the many countries to benefit early from COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is co-convened by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance Gavi) and the World Health Organization (WHO) – working in partnership with UNICEF as key implementing partner, developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, the World Bank, and others. It is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.

In April 2021 Grenada received 24,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX Facility. The arrival marks a historic step toward ensuring the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, in the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history. This delivery is part of the first phase of deliveries for Grenada, and more vaccines are expected to arrive successively during 2021. According to the first round of COVAX allocations, Grenada is expected to continue receiving doses through May until it reaches 45,600, the amount specified by COVAX.

PAHO’s Revolving Fund, which is responsible for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines for the countries of the Americas under the COVAX Mechanism and in June sent the second shipment of 24,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, manufactured by SK Bioscience of South Korea. Therefore, Grenada has received its second delivery of 21,600 vaccines under the COVAX arrangement and they are expected to be expired in August.

COVAX seeks to provide vaccines for at least 20% of the population of each participating country during 2021. Before the arrival of the COVAX shipment, Grenada received thousands of AstraZeneca vaccines donated to the region from the Indian Government. They were manufactured under license by Serum Institute of India. 

Some 10,000 from the first shipment had to be donated to Trinidad and Tobago because of hesitancy in Grenada.

Grenada’s vaccination programme 

Grenada began its vaccination programme on February 12th 2021 with Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell and other health officials receiving their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine under the scrutiny of a live video shown on the Government Information Service television, youtube and facebook platforms. Since then, more than 20,000 Grenadians have received their first dose and a little more than 16,000 have received their second dose. Less than 1/3 of the eligible population is fully vaccinated.

However, according to the latest Ministry of Health COVID-19 dashboard (dated July 30th 2021) 21,625 had received the first dose and 16,608 received the second dose. The dashboard is publishing daily and it provides a summary of the current situation of new and or active cases in the country along with some international information about COVID-19.

To encourage people to become vaccination the National Lottery Authorities in collaboration with the Ministry of Health launched an EC$10,000 raffle. It must be noted that all individuals who were vaccinated from the start of the vaccination programme were qualified for the raffle. It was won by a 68-year-old returning national from the UK. These link with provide more information about the raffle and the winner.

https://www.nowgrenada.com/2021/07/sandra-booker-wins-first-ec10000-lucky-vax-draw/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh2MTNUSAfA

In the midst of trying to boost the vaccination, the Ministry of Health and the COVID-19 Advisory Committee is also challenged by testing and vaccine hesitancy. Dr Shawn Charles, Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, disclosed in a news conference that not only were eligible people showing an unwilling to be vaccinated but they are persons working in the frontline duties such as hotel housekeeping staff who are also unwilling to be tested.

Protest action link to the vaccination mandate

St George’s University which was operating at reduce levels announced in April 2021 that the campus will be resuming in-person classes as of August 2021 and it will be implementing a policy that will require for all staff, faculty, vendors and anyone doing business on its campus to be vaccinated.

Less than 60 of the 450 unionised staff have since taken protest action objecting to the mandatory policy of the university. In total the University employs approximately 800 Grenadians. Since June 15th the workers are off the job and are placed on three months leave without pay. Religious and personal choices are among the reasons that are given for non-vaccinating.

Besides, St George’s University instituting mandatory vaccine for its staff, one financial institution – the Grenada Cooperative Bank has also confirmed that all its staff will have to be vaccinated. A supermarket which is a major vendor for students at the University has also embarked on encouraging staff to become inoculated.

Click here for more on that issued https://www.nowgrenada.com/2021/07/gtawu-real-value-supermarket-seeking-to-have-75-of-staff-vaccinated/

Senator Christopher DeAllie - The Business Community sector representative in the Upper House of Parliament has since announced that the private sector will be taking the lead on vaccination. The herd immunity goal for the country is between 70% to 80% of the population.

“We are going to get blows for it obviously; a lot of us are going to give deadlines. We going to give deadlines for staff members to get vaccinated; what happens when they don’t… is going to be a debate going forward and I know some of the challenges, but some of us are prepared to take up the challenge.” DeAllie said. Click this link for more about this development.

 https://www.nowgrenada.com/2021/07/private-sector-to-take-lead-on-vaccination/

Causes of vaccines hesitancy

Health Officials have become featured speakers at the weekly post cabinet briefings and they are continuously pleading for eligible citizens to become vaccinated. Reference is often made to neighboring countries that are having spikes, clusters and or community spread. No exact reason has been given for the hesitancy but its believe that it’s a combination of factors that falls between misinformation on social media, not having another choice of vaccine as is promoted on US cable news channels for the Americans to the “stop and then resume” news on the international media when it was reported that AstraZeneca is causing blood clots. Permanent Secretary Dr Shawn Charles referred to “stop/cease and resuming” of the vaccines as “the war among the pharmaceutical manufacturers” that the average citizens may not understand.

Fully Vaccinated citizens enjoying a special advantage

Grenada continues to operate under a State of Emergency and this is allowing the enforcement of the Emergency Powers Regulations under the Emergency Power Act. The regulation among other things provides for a midnight curfew, restrict the numbers of people who can attend a social activity and enforcing of physical distancing protocol.

With more and more persons becoming fully vaccinated, Government has amended its regulations to allowed for people who are fully vaccinated to attend social activities or mass gathering events with the permission of the Chief Medical Officer.

The first activity was the cricket games between West Indies and South Africa held from June 26 to July 01st 2021. As of July 21st, the regulation was legally amended to provide for the CMO to grant a waiver from enforcing the physical distancing protocol to any event organizer or business place that will accommodate only vaccinated persons. (Regulation Attach).

Changes to entering the island

Grenada as of July 31st 2021 will amend its entry protocol. Immigrations officers will deny entry to any visitor who are unvaccinated for the COVID-19 virus and children under 13 will only spend 48 hours in quarantine once they are accompanied by a fully vaccinated individual.

“Effectively immediately, persons 13 years and under travelling with a fully vaccinated party will be treated as that party, fully vaccinated with respect to quarantine,” Health Minister Nickolas Steele announced during the weekly post cabinet briefing on Tuesday 13th July 2021.

“So, if you are travelling with children 13 and under and you and everyone else in that party is fully vaccinated then the entire party will only have to do 48 hours quarantine. Individuals over the age of five are swab like all other adults at the airport,” he clarified.

Residents and citizens can return to Grenada whether vaccinated or unvaccinated. “We apologize for any inconvenience this may bring to persons, we have had consultation with the Grenada Hotel and Tourism Association and other stakeholders to give them as much warning as possible,” said the health minister.

Lamenting about the slow pace at which citizens are becoming inoculated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, Steele said that Grenada’s low rate of infection is linked directly to the island’s strict measures at ports of entry.

St. George’s, June 1, 2021 (MIC) -

Confirmation from the CARPHA lab in Trinidad in March 2020 that Grenada had it the first case of COVID-19 resulted in significant slowdown of the economy because of the lockdown measures taken within days of the announcement.

The Government declared a state of emergency which ended in October 2020. During the period of March 2020 to December 2020, the Government instituted several measures to facilitate the return of normalcy. Link directly to the measures was grant, loans and technical support from regional and international donors. 

As of April 2020, monthly fiscal reports from the Ministry of Finance have shown that the Government’s income had a reduction of 50% in the first three months of the Covid-10 pandemic lockdown. At the end of the fiscal year Government failed to meet its projected target by more than EC$100 million.

Click here for more on the month fiscal reports.

From what is known through public documents, Grenada received more than US$30 million in the form of grants and or loans and benefitted from the Debt Service Suspension Initiative which allows 76 IDA countries to suspend principal or interest payments on their debts to G20 members from May 01 to December 30th, 2020.

In April 2020, Grenada was approved to receive an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund and was invited to participate in the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative. The country was able to suspend bilateral debt payments for up to US$ 9 million in 2020, according to World Bank data. 

 Though the formal announcement was not made about the terms and conditions for all debt repayments to the Paris Club, a recent news release from the US Embassy in Grenada confirmed an agreement with one member of the Club.

The release said that a Bilateral Debt Agreement was signed with the USA that provides for the island to consolidate and reschedule debt payments that were due between May and December 2020. A review of the 2020 Estimates and Expenditure has shown that the Paris Club loans are labelled as rescheduled.
Click here for more the USA DSSI agreement

Grenada now has a grace period of one year after which debt service payments on suspended loans will recommence.

 Government did not only enforce the Escape Clause in the Fiscal Responsibility Legislation as part of temporary measures to deal with the negative fiscal implications of COVID-19 but it had also sought “Repurposing No objection” approvals from funding agencies whose projects had already received the necessary funding but was put in a waiting mode when the island when into lockdown in late March 2020.

 Section ten of the FRL provides for the Minister of Finance by Order to suspend, for a period not exceeding one fiscal year, fiscal rules, targets and corrective measures under sections 7 and 8, where a natural disaster, public health epidemic, or war as a result of which a state of emergency Receipts and expenditures excluded from fiscal rules and targets. The suspension will be until December 31st 2021.

 Chrissy Worme-Charles, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Development said “Some of our funds for certain projects, we had to repurpose it because we recognise that our psychosocial unit where a lot of the needs really surface, they did not have much equipment to work with”.

  International funding agencies do make allowance for approved funds to be repurposed or re-directed once the new component is justified and it will not be affecting the overall outcome of the original project. “We had to write to the funding agencies to get the necessary approval for us to redirect the use of funds,” said Delma Thomas, Social Development Minister.

 “We received some monies from the spotlight initiative, it’s in the programme but there were some monies that could have been used to purchase protective equipment, that we used to purchase PPEs and other equipment, and so the Ministry could have purchased together with the funding agency and presented it to Ministry of Health and others,” Thomas said who did not disclose the amount of money that was repurposed non other organization which repurposed financial aid.

 The Spotlight Initiative is a UN 2 million euro project that among other things will contribute to the achievement of gender equality, peace, social inclusion and protection of human rights, which are catalytic for sustainable development (particularly Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 16) and inclusive growth, in accordance with Agenda 2030, as well as the priority areas of the UN Multi-Country Sustainable Development Framework, and the Grenada’s Gender Equality Policy and Action Plan (GEPAP).

 Thomas in an interview said that within the capital budget, the Housing Project was affected not by repurposing but by reallocating of Government funds. There is no clear breakdown available for capital budget reallocation.

Vaccination programme:

Grenada began rolling out its vaccination programme for COVID-19 on February 12th, 2021, and as of May 31st 2021 approximately 27,000 citizens were vaccinated.  As that amount almost 8000 are fully vaccinated.

Hesitancy by citizens to quickly become inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine has resulted in the country donating 10,000 of the vaccines whose expiration date was June 30 to Trinidad and Tobago.

Government through the Ministry of Health issues a daily dashboard with the covid-19 status of the country. This dashboard from the Ministry of Health provides raw data on number of vaccinated persons, number of active COVID-19 cases locally and globally as well as the number of PCR test conducted.

Current COVID-19 cases stand at 160 for recovery and one death. Almost 30,000 PCR test were conducted.

Click here for a sample of the dashboard

New source of COVID-19 funding

There was no announcement of any new source of funding from Government nor international donors during the months of April and May 2021 but Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell disclosed during a news conference in April that Grenada is seeking a loan from the Caribbean Development Bank to assist in providing some stimulus payment to some workers in the tourism sector.

Click here for more about that announcement.

Finance Minister Gregory Bowen in an interview with MIC COVID-19 HUB said that there is no agreement on the initiative as he said he prefers to not publicly discuss the terms and conditions in advance. 

Government is yet to disclose the amount of money that deposited into an account at the Grenada Cooperative Bank for the public to assist with the extra spending as a result of COVID-19. Government established the fund at the request of people and organisations that expressed the desire to assist with financially contributions. 

“In response to your request, and to further streamline our procurement process of Personal Protective Equipment and other supplies, the Government of Grenada has developed the COVID-19 Response Support fund. The fund gives Grenadians, friends of Grenada and organizations the opportunity to support and partner with us, through donations, in the fight against COVID-19,” said a continuously airing public service announcement on radio.

However, during a recent news conference, Health Minister Nickolas Steele disclosed that the money in the account is use to cover the cost of educational outreach activities associated with media productions such as radio and television advertisements.

Procurement of services and goods

In 2014, the Houses of Parliament approved legislation to establish the Procurement Commission for the Government of Grenada. Previously, tendering was done through the tendering board. The regulations for the procure then mandates that all goods and services over EC$5000 must be tendered.

However, a review of newspapers which are all publishing online since the country went into lockdown shows no advertisement or notices calling for the tendering of the medical supplies or any projects related to COVID-19. 

The Ministry of Transportation as part of resuming public transportation in collaboration with the private sector bus operators agreed to provide bus operators with sanitizers to sanitize the hands of all incoming passengers. 

This process was never tendered but buses are supplied with the sanitizers for use. No company has come forward and claim to be sponsoring the sanitizers.

It is not publicly known how the Ministry purchased the sanitizers. The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act and Regulations formally legislate the procedures and processes in government purchases of goods, works and services by all public entities including Ministries and Departments, Statutory bodies, Boards and Commissions. This website provides in-depth information about the procurement process in Grenada. 

Read more here.

Public Debt and COVID-19

 Government’s decision to engage in new borrowing to finance its emergency spending created by COVID-19 Public Health Pandemic has caused the public debt to increase during 2020 and in the first quarter of 2021.

 “Total public debt increased during 2020 and further in the first quarter of 2021 primarily due to new borrowing to finance emergency spending, as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. It also increased to a lesser extent due to disbursements received on existing facilities,” said the first quarter public debt bulletin which is published on the Ministry of Finance website and facebook page.

 “Total public debt at the end of the first quarter comprised principally of Central Government’s external and domestic debt which totalled EC$2,110.7 billion or 67.2% of GDP,” said the document which provides a breakdown of the fiscal situation in the countries with a specific focus on external and domestic debts.

 External debt, said the bulletin, increased between the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter 2021 as most of the new funding was contracted from external creditors. Domestic debt, on the other hand, decreased between the first quarter of 2020 and fourth quarter of 2020 due to domestic amortization.

 Click here more information for the first quarter public debt bulletin.

St. George’s, March 31, 2021 (MIC) -

Grenada began rolling out its vaccination programme for COVID-19 in February 2021 and much of the Government announcements about COVID-19 were done through the release of the country’s daily dashboard. This dashboard from the Ministry of Health provides raw data on number of vaccinated persons, number of active COVID-19 cases locally and globally as well as the number of PCR test conducted.

Click here for reference to the dashboard

In early February 2021, Grenada received 6000 vaccines as gifts from Dominica and Barbados through a special arrangement that saw countries within the OECS sharing vaccines with each under the special arrangement with India. The objective of that arrangement was to ensure that all OECS Member States  including Barbados started its vaccination programme so that none of the island will be left behind.

In late February, Timothy Harris, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis told his parliament that a plan was chartered by the OECS Commission for the safe and timely arrival of vaccines to St Lucia and then for distribution to the islands. The charter cost US$250,000 or just about EC$680,000 was by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank.

Click here for more.

India has been one of the first G20 countries to donate vaccines to developing countries and it now has a list of over 100 countries awaiting supplies provides by India. The vaccines from India is manufactured at the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd – the world largest vaccine manufacturer.

Click here for more.

Grenada’s infection rate and other information about the country’s COVID-19 status can be found at this link .

In a national address on 31st March 2021, Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell and former Minister of Finance said that the island benefited from some EC$133 million in financing support and debt relief from several agencies in 2020. These are International Monetary Fund, World Bank, G20, Caribbean Development Bank and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank in 2020. 

Without providing a breakdown, Dr Mitchell said that Grenada attracted EC$78 million in external support. These sums have helped to facilitate the additional spending Government has incurred in providing relief to some sectors, purchasing the necessary protective gear for frontline workers, investing in the educational infrastructure to ensure our young people are not left behind, and creating a safer environment in schools, among other areas. 

The Prime Minister also disclosed that expenditure continues to exceed revenue collection as he said Government must continue to aggressively mobilise additional resources to meet expenditure demands in 2021. “The reality of our current fiscal situation is this – the financial implications of the pandemic caused a revenue shortfall of $96.6 million in 2020, with revenue collection in some months, decreasing by as much as 50%, when compared to the same period in 2019,” he said.

Statistics from the Ministry of Finance show a continued variation in revenue collection. In January and February this year, Government collected $30.1 million less than it did in the same period in 2020. We are optimistic about continued recovery, but the fact remains that the revenue shortfall considerably affects the money that is available for recurrent expenditure.

Projects and Funding

There was no announcement of any new source of funding from Government nor international donors but the Caribbean Development Bank in its newsletter which was published in March disclosed that Grenada had to repurposed a loan to be able to purchase laptops. 

Click here more.

The Bank did not say which loan was repurposed neither have Government of Grenada clearly say which loan but has hinted that it’s the loan for a secondary school presently under construction. The re-purposing is not expected to obstruct the completion of the school but will most likely affect the finishing furbishing of the school’s equipment.

The laptops purchased were distributed to teachers and students as part of government strategy to focus on the blended approach of online learning and classroom setting because of COVID-19.

Additionally, St Lucia Voice newspaper published “Grenada Receives Personal Protective Equipment to Fight Against COVID-19.” The consignment of supplies was procured from the European Union through the 11th European Development Fund Programme of support for health security strengthening for prevention and control of outbreaks of communicable diseases in the Caribbean. It is being implemented by the Caribbean Public Health Agency or CARPHA. This EU grant is seeking to improve health security in the region.

The supplies procured for Grenada were 2500 isolation gowns, surgical mask and 2500 N95 respirators. 

Click here for more.

Grenada was also named as one of the regional countries that will be benefitting from CIBC regional financial contribution towards COVID-19. Ten countries across the region will get a major boost to the Covid-19 vaccination programmes as a result of a USD$500, 000 donation from regional bank CIBC FirstCaribbean.

The donation to national vaccination programmes is being made by the bank through its charitable arm the FirstCaribbean International ComTrust Foundation, and will support the purchase of vaccines in Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.

Additionally, the bank is providing separate contribution of USD$250,000 to cover the cost of vaccinating members of its 2 500 staff who wish to avail themselves of the vaccine in those countries, bringing its total contribution to the regional vaccination effort to USD$750,000.

Finance Minister Gregory Bowen said that country received EC$70,000 or approximately US$27,000 from the Bank. The funding was deposit into the special COVID-19 account established by the Government in 2020 at the Co-op Bank. Members of the public can contribute to that fund and the money is used to specifically support COVID-19 related matters.

The account, according to the website https://covid19.gov.gd/donate was established “In response to your request and to further streamline our procurement process of Personal Protective Equipment and other supplies.’ 

Called the COVID-19 Response Support Fund, there is no document showing how much are deposited into that account nor what the funds were used to purchase.

At a recent news conference Health Minister Nicholas Steele was unable to say how much money was in that fund but disclosed that the fund is mainly used for financing the Ministry of Health outreach educational programme. That involves the payment of allowances to entertainers for participating and developing Public Service Announcements.  Payment from the fund has been used to pay for airtime on radio and television and promotions spots in newspapers as well as payment for sponsoring some PSA on social media. 

Procurement of services and goods

In 2014, the Houses of Parliament approved legislation to establish the Procurement Commission for the Government of Grenada. Previously, tendering was done through the tendering board. The regulations for the procure then mandates that all goods and services over EC$5000 must be tendered.

It must be noted that the tendering process was never used for the purchasing of PPE and other medical supplies to help with controlling and containing the spread of COVID-19. Dr Francis Martin, Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health has explained that all procurements are currently done through existing arrangement. 

These arrangements include partnership with PPP unit at the OECS Secretariat, PAHO and the Government Procurement Unit for the Ministry of Health. He said the ministry did not have to outsource to meet demands but had available several of PPEs and other supplies from the start of the pandemic.

St. George’s, February 28, 2021 (MIC) -

Grenada announced its first confirmed cases of COVID-19 on 22nd March 2020. As of February 24th 2021 the island recorded 148 confirmed cases. A breakdown by gender reflects 73 males and 75 females with one death. The deceased was a male in his 70s.

Covid-19 has had a limited impact on the health of Grenada’s population but significant impact on the fiscal/economic position. The government closed the country to international commercial traffic between March to August 2020 and this measure kept the number of cases under control.

Opening the borders was required to support the tourism sector which employs more than 4000 people and is seen as the island’s biggest export. The decision to reopen led to a sudden increase in the number of cases in December 2020. A cluster of cases was linked to one of the island’s all-inclusive hotels.

Funding Grenada’s fight against the pandemic

To tackle the impact of the pandemic in 2020, the government rolled out an emergency relief programme worth EC$50 million through parliamentary approval. However, international lending agencies and donors have partnered with the Government to provide various funding under the broad term of budgetary support; purchase of PPE and or rebooting of some sectors.

 Several existing projects had components reclassified under “repurposing agreement.” The repurposing agreement must first receive the approval from the donor agencies. The Ministry of Education and Social Development has confirmed repurposing no objection was sought with the funds used to purchase electronics devices for students and PPEs.

 Source: Click this link for more information about repurposing no objection. https://www.nowgrenada.com/2021/02/covid-19-measures-had-government-seeking-repurposing-approvals-to-redirect-funds/

There is no single document showing the amount of grant or soft loans the island has received for COVID-19 response but using the 2021 annual estimate of revenue and expenditure, the IMF website, World Bank website, the Globalpartnership website as well as the ECCB and CDB websites the following were identified.

European Development Fund 

US$314,517.77 from European Development Fund – the purpose of which is not clearly explained in the 2021 budget estimate. (Extract from 2021 Estimate of Revenue and Expenditure)

India UN Development partnership Fund

US$1.2 million from the India UN Development partnership Fund – purpose of which is explained as COVID-19 response. However, this sum will also cover construction of a new Incinerator for the General Hospital in Grenada. The budget is $100,000 for the project and it was approved for PAHO implementation, for purchasing and installing a new incinerator to properly manage biomedical waste. (extract from 2021 Estimate of Revenue and Expenditure)

World Bank 

US$2.5 million from IMF Rapid Credit Facility - The funds will be used to increase testing capacity, equip health facilities, strengthen isolation capacity, and bolster surveillance activities.

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/06/01/world-bank-strengthens-grenadas-covid-19-response-with-us25-million

 Caribbean Development Bank

US$4.81 million from Caribbean Development Bank – The purpose of which is to pay off multiple loans and only have one loan. information provided by the Ministry of Finance

Eastern Caribbean Central Bank

US$185,010.45 from Eastern Caribbean Central Bank purpose of which is for general budgetary support - https://www.eccb-centralbank.org/news/view/eccb-provides-4-million-grant-to-help-member-countries-prepare-and-manage-covid-19-pandemic

Global Partnership

US$25,901.46from Global Partnership to Ministry of Education the purpose of which is to Purchase electronic devices for students because of the online learning format adopted because of physical distancing.

https://www.globalpartnership.org/where-we-work/grenada

 International Monetary Fund

 US$22 million from IMF https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2020/04/28/pr20192-dma-grd-lca-imf-executive-board-approves-us-million-disbursements-address-covid-19-pandemic

-the purpose of which is:

 “The development objective of this operation is to support Grenada’s response to the COVID-19 crisis in the short term and also enhance long-term sustainability and resilience through 

• (i) strengthening the Government’s health and social protection responses to COVI D-19;

• (ii) saving jobs and protecting livelihoods of households and firms; and 

• (iii) strengthening fiscal management and transparency.

US$1 million World Bank Pandemic Emergency Financing facility – strengthen to service delivery at the General Hospital with the purchasing of an ambulance and other vehicles for the General Hospital. Information provided by the Ministry of Finance

Other funding

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government established an account with Grenada Co-op Bank inviting citizens locally and abroad to contribute into the account. The account, according to the website https://covid19.gov.gd/donate was established “In response to your request and to further streamline our procurement process of Personal Protective Equipment and other supplies.’

Called the COVID-19 Response Support Fund, there is no document showing how much was deposited into that account nor what the funds were used to purchase.

 Venezuela donate US$200,000 to Grenada for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines

 Foreign Affairs Minister, Oliver Joseph has described Venezuela as a genuine friend to Grenada after disclosing that the South American Spanish speaking nation is one of the countries that has presented the country with cash to help purchase COVID-19 vaccines.

“I wish to point out and highlight the contribution of the people and the Government of Venezuela. We know what Venezuela is going through, we know the blockade against Venezuela, we know all the protests that are taking place and Mr Speaker, Venezuela has donated US$200,000 to Grenada for the purchase of vaccines in this difficult time,” Joseph told members during Tuesday’s sitting of the Lower House of Parliament.

Conclusion

None of the donor agencies which provide grants and or loans has made any pronouncement during the month of February. However, the Government of Grenada is currently engrossed in a trade union struggle after a request was made to the trade union that salaries increase agreed to for 2021 will have to be deferred until December 2021.

Inclusion of this information in the report is important because the Trade unions are of the opinion that grants received from Government is significant despite the shortfall in revenue and thus Government is in a position to pay the increase.