20 UKRAINIAN DOCTORS ARRIVE IN ITALY TO HELP FIGHT CORONAVIRUS
A team of 20 Ukrainian medical doctors arrived in Italy on April 4 to help Italian specialists fight COVID-19 after a decree signed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on April 3.
The Ukrainians will spend 14 days in hospitals of eastern Italian region Marche, helping and sharing the experience with local specialists. Italy is the second-largest European country by the number of reported COVID-19 cases.
Daryna Antoniuk
Zelensky has approved this humanitarian aid in a bid to assist Italian doctors and equip Ukrainian specialists with skills and knowledge needed to combat COVID-19 when it peaks in Ukraine, which reportedly will happen in mid-April.
Italy will provide the Ukrainian medical workers with accommodation and food, while Ukraine will give them money and personal protective equipment (goggles, gloves, medical masks and protective suits).
Viktor Lyashko, Ukraine’s chief sanitary doctor, said when the Ukrainian doctors return to Ukraine, they will undergo 14 days of quarantine and observation. However, should hospitals require immediate help, the doctors will be sent to work and undergo self-isolation there, Lyashko stated on April 4.
Italy is among the countries most severely hit by the pandemic. As of April 4, COVID-19 has killed over 14,681 people there, more than in any other country.
Italy’s death rate among confirmed COVID-19 cases is 12%; it is 2.6% in Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, three Ukrainians died in Italy because of COVID-19. The first official fatality of a Ukrainian in Italy from the coronavirus was reported on March 13. The second and third deaths happened on March 20.
