Somalia has sent a team of doctors to Italy to help fight the COVID-19 in one of Europe’s hardest-hit countries.
About 20 doctors from Somali National University in Mogadishu took a charter flight to Rome. The aid is in response to appeals from the Italian government for international assistance. Doctors from Cuba and several other nations responded to the request, the news site Garowe Online reported.
“The 20 doctors have already been registered in Italy and are expected to team up with some doctors from across the world to help Italy to contain the novel coronavirus,” Somali government spokesman Ismail Mukhtaar said.
Somalia recorded its third confirmed coronavirus case on March 27. It has suspended domestic and international flights except for those carrying emergency medical equipment or food cargo, The Associated Press reported. The nation has erected quarantine tents near an old port in Mogadishu.
Despite sending medical help abroad, Somalis say there is much work to do at home. They warn preventive measures are needed or the disease could quickly spread out of control.
“This is a disease which has overwhelmed more sophisticated health care systems of countries than ours,” President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said in a public awareness campaign.
Medical equipment such as protective gear and face masks have been distributed across the country, including deliveries to Puntland and Somaliland, Garowe Online reported. Still, the country lacks testing capacity and must send samples abroad to test for the virus.
Observers also worry that, in the event of an outbreak, areas controlled by the extremist group al-Shabaab will be hit hardest. The group has attacked aid workers in the past and has refused to allow help to areas hit by natural disasters. “Lessons from previous epidemics, including the cholera outbreak in 2017, tell us that it’s unlikely they will allow humanitarian partners access to areas that are in need,” the Somalia director for Action Against Hunger, Ahmed Khalif, told the AP.