Countries offer solidarity to their neighbours amid Covid-19 outbreak

Countries offer solidarity to their neighbours amid Covid-19 outbreak
Copyright Luca Bruno/Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
By Katy Dartford with AP, AFP
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Whilst Albania and Germany offer aid to their struggling neighbours, solidarity grows within borders as well.

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As countries close down their borders and stockpiling continues, examples of solidarity are emerging across Europe.

Albania has sent a group of 30 doctors and nurses to neighbouring Italy to assist in the country's battle against the new coronavirus.

The government also sets aside a reserve budget for doctors and nurses, who will be paid every month.

Hundreds of thousands of Albanians who immigrated after the fall of the communist regime in the country in 1990 have integrated into Italian society and Italy has been highly supportive of Albania's integration into the European Union.

Italy was also on the frontline of humanitarian responses to the earthquake that killed 51 Albanians in November last year.

In Germany, the university hospital in Essen-Holsterhausen, in North Rhine-Westphaliais, is currently admitting seriously ill COVID-19 patients from France as part of a state-wide rescue operation.

On Saturday morning, a military helicopter with two infected patients from France landed at Essen / Muehlheim airport.

In the next few days, a total of 14 coronavirus victims from Italy and France are scheduled to be brought to the German state for treatment.

And solidarity does not necessarily have to cross borders.

French people are showing up en masse responding to calls from doctors calling for more blood donations.

Blood is not only needed for coronavirus patients but also for all the other patients with serious illnesses who are suffering from a loss in blood donations.

Donors are checked for the virus and asked to call within 2 days if they start to experience symptoms.

In the UK communities are rallying to support medical workers as the coronavirus outbreak puts increased pressure on the country's health service.

A group founded just over a week ago in London has raised over €40,000 in online donations from as far as Australia and the United States to provide meals for frontline staff at one south London hospital.

The money donated is spent on discounted food deliveries from local restaurants and suppliers and is good news for businesses who've seen their orders collapse in recent weeks.

The group believes they've developed a model that could be copied in other areas of the country.

With more donations, they hope to expand food deliveries to other London hospitals.

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