Luanda – Angolan minister of Health Sílvia Lutucuta announced Tuesday in Luanda that the Executive is preparing a financial reserve for the acquisition of vaccines against SARS Cov-2.
Sílvia Lutucuta announced so during a session of debate on 2021 State Budget at Parliament, adding that in addition to the reserve, the Government is also working with the World Bank on funding the purchase of vaccines.
In addition to these initiatives, she said, Angola will benefit from 12 million vaccines, through the Covax initiative, made up of Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), World Health Organisation (WHO) and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
"Studies on the vaccines are still in progress and we think that, in the first quarter of next year, we will start to have vaccines, but not in quantities to solve the problems and worldwide demand. Hence the need to maintain preventive measures against Covid- 19 ”, she said.
According to her, the patients with comorbidities will be the top priority.
During the meeting, the members of National Assembly defended the need to increase the portion of Budget for the Health sector.
The revised Budget for 202O allocated 816 billion kwanzas to the Health sector, and that of 2021 foresees an amount estimated at 842 billion.
Subsidy for medicines for people with chronic diseases: the MPs proposed to the Executive the adoption of measures to subsidize the medicines for the diabetic patients, with arterial hypertension and tuberculosis.
The proposal was presented by the 8th Commission of the National Assembly to the Minister of Health, Sílvia Lutucuta, during the discussion on State Budget for 2021 proposal.
The proposal is part of the range of concerns raised by the social partners, which defends the subsidy of medicines for families with an income below 150,000 kwanzas.
The MPs also defended the financial autonomy of hospitals and special attention to autistic children who suffer from global developmental disorders.
Sílvia Lutucuta guaranteed that the Executive is working on this process. "We have already held an initial public tender for medicines, but now it is necessary to do it comprehensively”, she stressed.
