On 15 December 2021, Tunisia received 10 ventilators from NATO’s Pandemic Response Stockpile to help the country respond to coronavirus infections. NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre and Hungary coordinated the donation to provide pandemic relief to Tunisia.
credit: Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The medical equipment was donated by Hungary to the NATO stockpile and handed over to Tunisian authorities by Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó during an official visit to Tunis on 15 December 2021.
The donation will be distributed to beneficiaries designated by the Ministry of Defence. This donation complements NATO’s EADRCC support delivered to Tunisia in February 2021, including 100,000 FFP2 masks and 15,000 disposable suits for biological protection. Military hospitals of Bizerte Gabes and Sfax benefited from the donation.
During the ongoing COVID crisis, the Pandemic Response Trust Fund, and Stockpile, established in June 2020, has provided multiple tranches of COVID-related support to Allies and partners in need. The assistance to beneficiaries has enhanced preparedness and resilience of the beneficiaries’ national health systems, increased national inventories with modern medical equipment and saved lives of a large number of patients.