UAE offers support to countries around the world
The UAE has provided the necessary support and medical assistance to many of the countries most affected by the virus to confront it in different countries around the world, and has expressed its readiness to continue their various contributions to combat the crisis since the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
The UAE has always emphasized the need to extend a helping hand to all people in difficult circumstances without discrimination or differentiation. Their initiatives included providing full support to the World Health Organization and providing a number of countries, including China, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Colombia, Seychelles, Italy and Kazakhstan, with necessary medical and relief supplies.
WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus thanked the UAE and Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, for their continued support of global efforts to tackle the virus.
China and Afghanistan
In November 2020, the UAE joined China in the face of the spread of the new virus in some cities. I have coordinated with the relevant authorities in China to work together to provide all the medical supplies necessary to deal with the outbreak.
The UAE has already provided medical supplies to China, including masks, gloves and other items.
An emergency medical aid shipment containing 20,000 test units and equipment to screen thousands of people has also been sent to Afghanistan.
Iran
In March last year, the UAE sent three planes to Iran carrying medical supplies, relief equipment, including boxes of gloves, surgical masks and protective equipment.
The first flight carried five WHO experts to help 15,000 healthcare workers in Iran.
The UAE has evacuated 215 fellow nationals from China’s Hubei province, the first hotbed of the virus worldwide, to the Abu Dhabi-based humanitarian city of Emirates for medical care before returning home. An aircraft equipped with integrated medical services carried out the evacuation. The evacuation involved the Humanitarian Response Team, which included pilots, hosts, and medical and administrative staff, and was involved in promoting and highlighting the humanitarian and voluntary role.
Italy and Kazakhstan
The UAE sent an aid plane carrying about 10 tons of various medical and preventive supplies to Italy, benefiting about 10,000 medical workers, to support them in the face of the virus in April last year
The UAE also sent an aid plane carrying 13 tons of various medical and preventive supplies to Kazakhstan, with about 10,000 medical workers benefiting from the virus.
Repatriation
The UAE decided to bring all its citizens abroad and students studying abroad or at their own expense back to the country within 48 hours, in co-ordination with the country’s scholarships, appointees and embassies, in March 2020.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation continued to work with citizens of the United Arab Emirates to check on their conditions and to facilitate all procedures for their return home.
The decision to suspend all incoming and outgoing flights in a number of countries around the world was made because of the Coronavirus epidemic.
“Do Not Worry”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has also launched a “Do Not Worry” service for members of the State’s diplomatic missions abroad, with the aim of safeguarding their health, enhancing their safety and providing a dedicated team to ensure coordination and implementation of all precautionary and preventive measures.
Also under this sentence, Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed, in a video address, assured citizens and residents of strategic stocks of goods, pledging to provide food and medicine “indefinitely”.
