- ADB is helping the Philippine government further scale up its COVID-19 health response through a $125 million loan approved on 25 August 2020.
- The loan seeks to help improve health services across the country, and will assist the government in achieving its goal of providing universal health care to all Filipinos.
- With ADB’s support, the Philippines will be ready for future health emergencies.
The Asian Development Bank is helping the Philippine government to further scale up its capacity to prevent and control the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) through a $125 million loan approved on 25 August 2020.
The Health System Enhancement to Address and Limit COVID-19 (HEAL) Project seeks to improve health services across the country by upgrading medical equipment and providing laboratory supplies to selected government hospitals, supplying personal protection equipment to medical frontliners, and building two more COVID-19 testing laboratories to boost the country’s testing capacity by 11,000 tests per day. Health workers will be given training to better support patients and their families. The loan will also help the country achieve its goal of providing universal health care to all Filipinos. With ADB’s support, the Philippines will be ready for future health emergencies.
Transcript
With the COVID-19 pandemic straining health systems globally the Philippines is rapidly scaling up its health response through testing, contact tracing, and patient isolation.
Testing laboratories have been expanded significantly increasing the number of COVID-19 PCR tests completed daily.
The government built quarantine facilities to supplement existing hospitals.
ADB is supporting the government’s efforts by providing a $125 million loan to further scale up its health response.
With ADB’s help, two more laboratories will be built, boosting the country’s testing capacity by at least 11,000 per day.
Laboratory supplies will be provided to selected government hospitals and PPEs delivered to medical frontliners across the country.
A dozen hospitals will be retrofitted with isolation wards—complete with new equipment to monitor patients.
Equipment to improve the diagnosis of COVID-19 cases will be installed in 85 selected hospitals while nearly a hundred more will benefit from new ventilators.
Healthcare workers are critical in the fight against COVID-19 so they will get further training to better support patients and families.
Beyond COVID-19, ADB is helping the country achieve universal health care, with equal access to quality and affordable health services for all Filipinos.
With ADB’s support, the Philippines will be ready for future health emergencies.
