On 24 January 2022, Bosnia and Herzegovina received 30 ventilators from NATO’s Pandemic Response Stockpile to help reinforce the country’s health care facilities in response to coronavirus infections. NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre and Hungary coordinated this donation.
The medical equipment was donated by Hungary to the NATO stockpile and handed over to Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities during a ceremony on 1 February 2022. The ceremony was attended by the Ambassador of Hungary to Bosnia and Herzegovina Krisztian Pósa, the Minister of Civil Affairs Ankica Gudeljević, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Josip Brkic, and the Chief of Staff of NATO Headquarters Sarajevo Colonel Ferenc Kiss.
These ventilators will be distributed to beneficiaries by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This donation complements NATO’s EADRCC support delivered to Bosnia and Herzegovina already during 2021, which included 3 negative pressure chambers, 3 portable x-ray devices, 550 non-contact Infrared thermometers, 20,000 FFP2 and FFP3 masks, 43,000 protective clothing, and 1000 antigen tests.
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 high number of patients.