Yesterday, the UAE sent an aid plane with 12.5 tons of medical supplies and 500,000 rapid scanners to 14 countries and Caribbean islands that include Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis , St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, in addition to the British Territory of Montserrat, to strengthen the efforts of 12 thousand and 500 health care workers and others in containing the spread of the emerging coronavirus (Covid-19).
Barbados will be a center for distributing aid to the rest of the islands in cooperation and coordination with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, which is the central agency for emergency management for Caribbean countries and islands.
The UAE’s ambassador to the Republic of Cuba, the non-resident ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, and the country’s representative in the Association of Caribbean States, Bader Abdullah Saeed Al Matrooshi, said: “The UAE is one of the countries that strongly supports the efforts of the governments of the Caribbean island states to achieve their national priorities and goals in the field of Sustainable development and access to various services, especially in the medical sector.
He added: “The dispatch of a medical aid plane to the Caribbean islands reflects the continuous efforts made by the UAE to support the islands in the face of the effects of the emerging Corona Virus pandemic, by providing them with the necessary supplies to enhance the capabilities of medical care workers, and provide appropriate protection for them".
For his part, said the country's ambassador to the Republic of Panama, the non-resident ambassador of the state to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and Barbados, Ibrahim Mohamed Gomaa Hassan Al-Mansoori: «The assistance provided by the UAE to countries of the Caribbean islands to enhance the efforts of its medical personnel in combating the pandemic of the emerging corona virus».
For its part, said the permanent representative of the UAE to the United Nations, the ambassador of the non-resident country in Grenada, Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh: “International cooperation is necessary to contain the epidemic and to push the economic recovery forward. We agree with the WHO assessment that no one is safe, so everyone is safe. ”
She added that the UAE is committed to cooperating with the international community and the countries of the Caribbean islands to preserve lives and health, and to work to safely resume tourism, trade and other economic activities. It is worth noting that, as of yesterday, the UAE sent more than 1132 tons of aid to more than 89 countries, which benefited more than a million health care workers.
The UAE has also built an air bridge in cooperation with the World Food Program to transfer field hospitals to Ghana and Ethiopia, as part of the comprehensive humanitarian assistance program that the country has taken to support the efforts of many countries in the face of Covid-19. It donated sets of test instruments for the detection of the "Covid-19" virus at a value of $ 10 million to the World Health Organization, and worked in cooperation with the World Health Organization and its partners through the International City for Humanitarian Services, which includes the largest warehouses for humanitarian relief, to deliver the necessary supplies to combat novel coronavirus.
Emirati aid enhances the efforts of 12,500 health care workers and others to contain the spread of the Corona virus.