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COVID-19: Flattening the curve and relaxing public health measures in the Caribbean

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Dear Editor,

As of 23rd March, 2020, all countries and territories in the Caribbean have reported COVID-19 cases to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

In all instances the first few COVID-19 cases were imported by arriving travelers or nationals returning from Europe and United States of America by air or sea.

A cumulative total of 5,235 cases including 252 deaths representing 0.9 per cent and 1.2 per cent of all cases and deaths reported to date, respectively in the  region of the Americas, have been confirmed in the Caribbean sub-region.

The Dominican Republic with 2,620 cases including 126 deaths leads the burden of COVID-19 in the sub-region followed by Puerto Rico (788 cases and 42 deaths), and Cuba (620 cases and 16 deaths).

The outbreak in the Caribbean also showed an early rise with clusters of cases in the French territories, followed by deaths and large number of recovered individuals from Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guyana. In the English speaking Caribbean- Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago each had between 60 and 113 cases with crude case death rate in the range of 7.0% in Trinidad, 5.6% in Barbados, 5.7% in Jamaica.

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Countries exhibited encouraging COVID-19 testing practices on a few islands such as Dominica, St.Kitts and Nevis, and Barbados as well as in  other territories  such as Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Aruba.

On the other hand the COVID-19 positive test yield ranged on average 9.7% in Trinidad and Tobago, 11.3% in Barbados and 13.1% in Jamaica.

Political leaders in the Caribbean have been very proactive, decisive and consultative among each other to prevent a public health and economic crisis.  CARICOM Heads of Government  under the leadership of the Prime Minister of Barbados have explored collective decision making.

In late February to late March 2020  most countries in the Caribbean region had announced public health measures to restrict travelers entering their territories from affected countries including travel bans as well as restricting mass gatherings, discouraging crowding in public places, closing of schools and eventually applying curfews and stringent physical distancing measures.

The implementation of the whole of society approach with consultation of all relevant stakeholders, business leaders, unions, social partners  for a coordinated and innovative policy action  has been critical to slow down COVID-19 in the Caribbean.

Now, to conquer and defeat COVID-19 in the Caribbean, countries may need to consider monitoring tools, when and how to relax public health measure towards ‘normalcy’. The following are few points for consideration which are based on the evolution of the COVID-19 outbreak; the coping capacity of the healthcare system and the capacity of the public health system to detect new cases.

In the absence of firm and quantified evidence on the relative and independent efficacy of each single measure, and as a general principle, measures with the highest level of sustainability and lowest negative consequence could be introduced first and removed last.

The criteria to consider may include continuous decline in cases, hospitalization, death, decline in positive test results, adequacy of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits and health system (hospital and non-hospital) function well, while using less than the maximum sustainable capacity.

In principle and when feasible, measures could be relaxed in a step-wise manner, for example leaving at least 2 weeks in-between to allow the lifting of the measures to have a discernable effect.

Scaling down could be progressive for movement restrictions, but the basic personal measures including physical distancing and hygiene measures should be sustained in the post-epidemic period.

Protection of the vulnerable population should be central in the decision to maintain or relax a measure.  Some measures (for instance business closure) could be lifted first in lower population density (rural versus urban, or small/medium versus large cities)

We are far from ending this pandemic and despite the lack of perfect scientific data and information to project the future for decision making,  many countries are in the right direction in scaling up testing capacity, health systems organization, preparing for surge capacity, implementing public health measures and addressing the economic and human crisis.

Dr. Yitades Gebre

PAHO/WHO Representative, to Barbados & Eastern Caribbean Countries 

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REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

(CONSULTING SERVICES – INDIVIDUAL SELECTION)

 

OECS MSME Guarantee Facility Project

Loan No.: IDA-62670, IDA-62660, IDA-62640, IBRD-88830, IDA-62650

Assignment Title: Senior Operating Officer (SOO)

Reference No. KN-ECPCGC-207852-CS-INDV

 

The Governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have received financing in the amount of US$10 million equivalent from the World Bank towards the cost of establishing a partial credit guarantee scheme, and they intend to apply part of the proceeds to payments for goods, and consulting services to be procured under this project. 

The consultant will serve as the “Senior Operating Officer (SOO)” for the ECPCGC and should possess extensive knowledge of MSME lending with some direct experience lending to Micro, small and medium-sized businesses, knowledge of the internal control processes necessary for a lending operation and the ability to design and implement risk mitigation procedures. The ideal candidate should possess an Undergraduate Degree from a reputable college or university, preferably in Business, Accounting, Banking or related field, with a minimum of 5 years’ experience in lending, inclusive of MSME lending. The initial employment period will be for two years on a contractual basis. Renewal of the contract will be subject to a performance evaluation at the end of the contractual period. The assignment is expected to begin on September 30th, 2021.  The consultant will report directly to the Chief Executive Officer of the ECPCGC.

The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment can be viewed by following the attached link below. 

 

https://bit.ly/3iVannm

 

The Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECPCGC) now invites eligible “Consultants” to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have:

  • An Undergraduate Degree from a reputable college or university, preferably in Business, Finance, Banking or related field; and
  • Minimum of 5 years’ experience in MSME lending. Applicants should also have:
  • The ability to design and implement risk management procedures 
  • Extensive knowledge of MSME lending with some direct experience lending to small and medium-sized businesses
  • Extensive knowledge of MSME banking operations
  • Knowledge of the internal controls necessary for a lending operation and the ability to design and implement risk management procedures
  • Experience developing and presenting information in public, including responding to questions in real-time
  • Experience lending to MSMEs located in the ECCU
  • Knowledge of marketing and communicating with the MSME sector
  • Ability to draft procedures to be used in a lending operation
  • Familiarity with the mechanics of a loan guarantee program
  • Exceptional written, oral, interpersonal, and presentation skills, and
  • Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office suite.

The attention of interested Individual Consultants is drawn to Section III, Paragraphs 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers July 2016, [revised November 2017] (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest. A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Approved Selection Method for Individual Consultants set out in the clause 7.34 of the World Bank Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers. 

 

Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours 0800 to 1700 hours:

Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation

Brid Rock, Basseterre,

St. Kitts.

Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form by e-mail by August 11th, 2021, to [email protected]

 

For further information, please contact:

Carmen Gomez-Trigg                                                            Bernard Thomas

Chief Executive Officer                                                          Chief Financial Officer

Tel: 868-620-8144                                                                  Tel: 869-765-2385

Email: [email protected]                                          [email protected]