(Trinidad Guardian) Five billion dollars and counting.
That’s the confirmed amount spent in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Minister of Finance Colm Imbert.
“We have crossed the $5 billion mark and we intend to provide as much relief as we can. And certainly, in the next budget, there will be an amount for COVID relief, residual COVID relief going forward into 2022,” Imbert said during a virtual media conference yesterday,
About $75 million out of that sum has been spent so far to procure vaccines, Imbert said as he dismissed rumours that the Government had sought loans to buy doses.
“All of the vaccines that we have purchased so far, we have use of general revenues because of the importance of it. You didn’t wait for anything. So we have used general revenues earned by the Ministry of Finance from taxation and wherever to purchase vaccines,” said Imbert, who previously estimated Trinidad and Tobago would spend $120-130 million on vaccines.
