MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Israeli medical team and supplies arrive in Uruguay to help fight covid-19

“Very happy to be able to share our knowledge and experience on the fight against COVID19, with our Uruguayan friends,” said the diplomat on Twitter.

Israel's ambassador to Uruguay, Yoed Magen, welcomed in Montevideo the delegation of health care professionals from the Sheba Medical Center who arrived in the country Monday morning to contribute to the effort against covid-19.

“Very happy to be able to share our knowledge and experience on the fight against COVID19, with our Uruguayan friends,“ said the diplomat on Twitter.

The team is led by the Israeli-Uruguayan Doctor Amit Gutkind. ”We harbour a combined feeling, both of great responsibility and great pride,” Gutkind said.

The Israeli delegation will be in Uruguay until next Sunday.

On Wednesday, 2,769 new cases of COVID-19 and 62 new deaths were detected in Uruguay. The spate of new cases has continued for almost a month, and the number of deaths in April was four times higher than in all of 2020.

On the other hand, at least 32% of the population eligible for vaccination in Uruguay has received the first dose to achieve immunity. That is, 1,141,159 have received the first dose of the vaccine and 554,202 the second. The Secretary of the Presidency Álvaro Delgado announced this Tuesday that by the end of next week a batch of one million more doses of CoronaVac vaccine from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac will arrive.

Together with the medical staff, or one day earlier actually, an Israeli donation of US $ 250,000 worth of medical supplies -respiratory monitors and ventilators- arrived in Montevideo for Intensive Care Units (ICUs).

Uruguay's Undersecretary of Foreign Relations, Carolina Ache, thanked Israel's gesture of solidarity and described the experience as very useful. She underlined that this is the result of a private initiative that involves the Jewish community of Uruguay, Uruguayans living in Israel, and Uruguayan doctors, who were joined by the governments of both countries.

Magen also highlighted the personal and virtual communications between the two nations, which, he considered, was decisive for everything to be organized, and then for institutional actions to take place. He pointed out as well that Israel was opening schools, shops and public transport after being closed for a long time, while the tourism sector is getting back in motion step by step.

Meanwhile, Buenos Aires' Ambassador to Israel Sergio Uribarri conveyed to Health Minister Carla Vizzotti that Argentina had been chosen for phase 3 trials of an Israeli-developed covid-19 vaccine.