The UNDP and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) is equipping health care workers with personal protective equipment (PPE), providing them with observation periods, and will organize trainings to enhance their knowledge on Covid-19 as well as psychological seminars to help them cope with the new pandemic.

This week, the UNDP will donate a total of 50,000 surgical masks to partner facilities now working with Covid-19 patients: 20,000 masks will be provided to the National TB Center, 20,000 to the Republican AIDS Center and 10,000 to the state penitentiary system. These will be further distributed in regions according to needs.

These add up to prior donations of ten ventilators for artificial respiration, 6550 PCR tests, masks and respirators by the UNDP “Effective Control of HIV and TB in the Kyrgyz Republic” Project, funded by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The project is planning to purchase additional PPE for medical workers in TB and HIV services by September.

Support to health care workers

The UNDP project funded by the GFATM is currently financing observation for health care workers from the “red zones” in two facilities. The two week observation periods allow health care workers to recuperate and ensure they do not infect their household contacts after working with Covid-19 patients. In the “red zones”, health care workers work without leaving the hospital territory to limit risks of transmission of the disease, and then have to go on quarantine.

For medical personnel from the National TB Center - one of the first hospitals to welcome Covid-19 patients in the capital - the UNDP / Global Fund project is funding 14-day observations for five brigades of health care workers (50 people in total) in a hotel, with full board. The project is also funding observation for 42 health care workers from the Republican Narcology Center, which recently opened a service for up to 120 patients with Covid-19.

To help these health care workers who are at the frontline of the fight with Covid-19, the UNDP / Global Fund project will also organize regular online trainings on Covid-19 and online psychological seminars and support until the end of the year.