The World Bank is providing $12.57mn in grant financing for the Tajikistan Emergency COVID-19 Project in addition to an already approved $8.63mn for COVID-19 vaccines, it said in a statement. The financing is set to further strengthen Tajikistan’s health care capacity and protect vulnerable population groups in response to the ongoing pandemic.

The project will invest in necessary infrastructure to supply oxygen for up to 15 hospitals across Tajikistan, including the 10 hospitals that already received equipment and medical supplies under the Tajikistan Emergency COVID-19 Project in April. The infrastructure will help severely ill COVID-19 patients and other patients receive life-saving oxygen therapy. The funding will also support the procurement of essential equipment and supplies for oxygen therapy and cover the procurement of medicines for COVID-19 therapy, including dexamethasone and other approved therapeutics. It will also provide one-time emergency support to fill a budget gap for vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) for children.

“These additional resources will further help Tajikistan to protect the poorest households from the direct impacts of the pandemic, by strengthening the healthcare system and emergency social assistance,” said Jan-Peter Olters, World Bank country manager for Tajikistan. “This project—complementing efforts to secure COVID-19 vaccines—aims at providing necessary support to allow for accelerated economic recovery and the ability to help the country’s most vulnerable households.”

“Disruptions in essential health services, such as routine child immunization, caused by COVID-19 may have a large impact on the population’s health and increase morbidity and mortality,” said Jakub Kakietek, World Bank technical team lead. “Protecting essential health services during the pandemic, through emergency measures but also through continued investments in health system strengthening, is critical to shielding the population from the negative secondary impacts of COVID-19.”

The World Bank’s current investments in Tajikistan’s health sector stand at over $42mn, covering the strengthening of institutional capacity and addressing child malnutrition, among other aims.