Taiwanese donations reach Slovenia, Italy in COVID-19 fight

ROC Central News Agency

04/22/2020 09:12 PM

Berlin/Rome, April 22 (CNA) Taiwanese donations for people struggling with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic have been shipped to Slovenia and to hospitals in the worst-hit Lombardy region of Italy, according to Taiwanese liaison offices in those European countries.

Some 150,000 surgical masks were handed over to Stanislav Lotric, deputy head of the Slovenian civil protection authorities on Tuesday, who accepted them on behalf of his government, according to Taiwan's representative office in Austria.

Lotric said his country is in dire need of materials to combat the virus and he thanked Taiwan for the mask donation, the office said.

Representative to Austria Vanessa Shih (史亞平), who presented the masks to Lotric in person, said Taiwan is happy to offer its assistance to medical personnel in the central European country.

In addition to the masks, Taiwan would also like to share its experience of keeping people in quarantine and to work with Slovenia in the development of testing kits and a vaccine against COVID-19, she said in a statement released Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Niguarda Hospital and Brescia People's Hospital in Lombardy, both of which have recently received 15 respirators donated by Taiwan, expressed their gratitude via video to the Taiwan government and people, according to Taiwan's representative office in Italy.

Italy has been one of the worst-hit countries by the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 180,000 cases, including over 24,000 deaths as of Wednesday.

In Slovenia, there have been 1,344 confirmed cases reported, with 77 deaths, according to data compiled by Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center.

(By Lin Yu-li, Huang Ya-shih and Elizabeth Hsu)

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