Spain provides medical assistance to Nepal to combat COVID-19

KATHMANDU, May 20: The Government of Spain provided support of medical equipment and supplies to the Government of Nepal on Thursday afternoon. 

Magdy Marinez Soliman, Director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), handed over the materials to Hridayesh Tripathi, Minister for Health and Population (MoHP), at a brief ceremony held at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu.

The items arrived in a chartered flight sent by the Government of Spain include 144,000 sets of rapid antigen test kit, 10 units of oxygen concentrator, 144,000 units of FFP2 mask, 50 units of oxygen cylinder and 15 sets of ventilator.

Minister Tripathi thanked the Spanish Government for the generous support of life-saving materials, which would help address the crisis caused by the surge of COVID-19 cases. Dawa Futi Sherpa, Ambassador of Nepal to Spain, and senior officials of the Ministry of Health and Population and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) were present on the occasion.

Meanwhile, the Spanish delegation called on Bharat Raj Paudyal, Foreign Secretary, later this afternoon. During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on bilateral relations, international cooperation and post-pandemic economic recovery, among others. Foreign Secretary Paudyal stated that Spain’s timely support reflects the profound Nepal-Spain friendship. Director Soliman, conveying Spain’s solidarity to Nepal’s fight against the pandemic, hoped that the support would be helpful for treatment of the affected people.

 The support received today is in response to the request of the Government of Nepal to the Spanish Government, communicated both bilaterally and through the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism, for supporting Nepal with vaccines, medicines, equipment and supplies related to COVID-19.