EU and UN help medical workers combat Covid-19 pandemic in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts

March 31, 2020

Photo: Maksym Kytsiuk/ UNDP Ukraine

Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, 31 March 2020UNDP, with the aid of funding from the European Union, has supplied medical workers from the Emergency Medical Care Centre of Donetsk Oblast with one hundred sets of personal protective equipment for ambulance teams in Donetsk Oblast, while medical facilities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts have been supplied with more than seventy litres of highly concentrated antiseptic liquid.

The handover of the supplies was organized by UNDP under the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme, with financial support from the European Union.

“To counter the Covid-19 pandemic effectively, we need to work consistently and systematically,” said Programme Coordinator of the Local Governance and Decentralisation Reform Component of the UN RPP Olena Ruditch.  

“Thus, the transfer of one hundred sets of anti-pandemic clothing for ambulance teams is a confident step forward to providing help to medical workers, who expose themselves daily to the dangers of being infected by the coronavirus while providing emergency care for patients.”

Under the programme, more than seventy litres of highly concentrated antiseptic liquid was transferred for use in medical facilities of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Antiseptic concentrate was divided among six medical facilities by the Health Department of Donetsk Oblast Sate Administration, namely: the Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine Centre, City Hospital №1 of Kramatorsk City Council, Kostyantynivka Infectious Disease Clinical Hospital, Myrnohrad Infectious Disease Clinical Hospital, Mariupol Emergency Care Hospital and Mariupol City Hospital №4 named after I.K. Matsuk.

The Health Department of Luhansk Oblast Sate Administration has transferred supplies to Severodonetsk multi-field hospital, as it has been assigned as the main medical facility to treat patients with coronavirus infections, staffed by qualified personnel in properly equipped departments inside the hospital.

“We’re beyond grateful for the continuous systematic support provided by the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme even during this hard for all of us times,” said the Director the Emergency Medical Care Centre of Donetsk Oblast, Ihor Kiiashko.

“This personal protective equipment will be distributed today between the units of the Emergency Medical Care Centre of Donetsk Oblast. These equipment sets will help partially address the shortages of protective clothing for medical workers who are in contact with people suspected to be ill with the COVID-19 disease.”

In the meantime, CEO of the Severodonetsk multi-field hospital Roman Vodianyk shared his gratitude on the phone for the help provided and shared his hopes for future partnerships.

Media enquiries

Maksym Kytsiuk, Communications Associate, UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme, maksym.kytsiuk@undp.org, +380 63 576 1839

Background

The United Nations Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme (UN RPP) is being implemented by four United Nations agencies: the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

Twelve international partners support the Programme: the European Union (EU), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the governments of Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland & the UK.