Coronavirus Covid-19: Lenarcic (EU), “a team of doctors and nurses from Romania and Norway to Bergamo and Milan. Italy is not alone”

“I am particularly glad to announce that a team of doctors and nurses from Romania and one from Norway will be going to Italy”, in Bergamo and Milan, “to help their Italian colleagues”: the announcement has just been made by Janez Lenarcic, European commissioner for crisis management, at an online press conference from Brussels. “This is solidarity in action”, he commented. “At first, Italy’s demand for assistance was not adequately responded to by the other member states, but now things have changed, and the truth is that Italy is not alone”, he admitted. Austria too has offered a helping hand to Italy by “offering over 3 thousand litres of disinfectant”, reported Lenarcic, who explained that “all such European assistance is coordinated and co-funded by the Emergency Response Coordination Centre, which constantly works with all countries to make sure help is sent where it is needed most”. Italy also implemented Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme, to map healthcare facilities and check public areas. Now, though, there’s the problem of Spain, where infections have outnumbered the Italian cases: “We are aware of that, and we are working for that as well”, Lenarcic added. For instance, materials donated by Taiwan to the EU will go to Spain. “I am glad things are improving, that assistance is coming, and that maybe it’s clear now that only by joining our resources can we face this challenge”.
Valentina Bombelli