The European Union is supporting Cyprus with specific recovery actions to combat the coronavirus pandemic[/B], according to a press release issued by the House of the European Union.
According to the press release, so far, 22 EU countries have received the green light to use EU recovery and resilience funds to strengthen their economies and aid recovery from COVID-19.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the European Commission has launched a comprehensive and ambitious recovery plan. The Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe (REACT-EU) programme provides additional funding in areas that are vital to lay the foundations for a healthy and rapid recovery. REACT-EU continues and extends previous Investment Initiative measures to tackle coronavirus. These measures aim to help citizens and businesses and mitigate the significant economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, it added.
More specifically, the project addresses the response to the coronavirus pandemic in Cyprus and the actions that the Cypriot government is implementing. The aim is to strengthen and protect the General Health System and the state hospitals in order to adequately respond to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the aim is also to strengthen the prevention and detection of the virus and the prevention of its spread and consequently the protection of public health in Cyprus.
In relation to the vaccinations, it is noted that until Wednesday 23 March 2022, a total of 1,762,121 doses had been administered, of which 665,045 are 1st doses, 641,853 2nd doses and 455,223 booster doses. The percentage of the total population vaccinated with at least one dose is 75.4% and percentage who actually completed their vaccination regimen is 72.4%, the press release said.
In addition, activities to be implemented under this project include the strengthening of government hospitals, both with technological equipment such as respirators, monitoring monitors and appropriate protective equipment for doctors and nurses, the purchase of drugs to cure COVID-19 patients, the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines and the purchase of reagents and other consumables related to molecular testing.
It is noted that the Government of Cyprus acted in time to take measures to minimise the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, thus ensuring that the economy will return to the path of economic growth as soon as possible.
As part of efforts to enhance transparency, the Ministry of Health informs that following an audit of operations carried out by the Internal Audit Service of the Republic at the Ministry of Health, as a beneficiary of the project "Actions to counter the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease" under the Operational Programme "Employment, Human Resources and Social Cohesion", no findings were identified and the audit was successfully completed.
In particular, total expenditure of €28.628.702,88 declared to the European Commission for the accounting year 01/07/2020 - 30/06/2021 for this project and expenditure of €13.191.152,42 were audited by KPMG Ltd without identifying any ineligible expenditure.
The remaining expenditure of €15.437.550.46 related to the purchase of vaccines and medicines were audited by the Internal Audit Service of the Republic of Cyprus without also identifying ineligible expenditure.
Cyprus is following the objectives of the COVID-19 vaccination strategies in accordance with the guidelines of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the press release concludes.
Source: CNA
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