Thirty-two years after our first emergency response in Armenia, we return to tackle coronavirus.
As COVID-19 challenges healthcare systems across the world, we’re continuing to support the global fight to tackle the pandemic with our twelfth emergency response of the year.
In response to a call from the Armenian Ministry of Health through the WHO, a team of five UK-Med doctors, nurses and humanitarian health experts travel to the country for a five-week UK Emergency Medical Team COVID-19 response in the capital city Yerevan.
Intensive care (ICU) doctor Rebecca Inglis flew to the capital city yesterday. She will be joined by other UK Emergency Medical Team members flying from the UK today. These include emergency medicine consultants Paul Ransom and Dave Clarke and critical care nurse and infection prevention and control specialist Patricia McCready. The team is led by UK-Med’s CEO David Wightwick. They will be joined by a logistician and a second critical care nurse later this week.
UK-Med CEO David Wightwick says: ‘We’ll be providing training and on the job support for those treating seriously and critically ill patients – as well as advising on infection control to keep clinicians and patients safe. We’re proud to be supporting the UK EMT to offer this essential support to health care teams in Yerevan.’
The request for support came as the numbers of daily COVID-19 cases in Armenia dramatically increased from 500 to 2,500 in a month from the beginning of October to the beginning of November (JHU 23.11.20).
Armenia has a special place in UK-Med’s 32-year history. In 1988, our founder and chair of trustees Professor Tony Redmond OBE led a small medical team to assist following a large earthquake which killed tens of thousands of people. This response marked the beginning of a series of small sponsored emergency responses which later led to the formation of UK-Med in 1995 and the large-scale Ebola response in 2014.
As a member of our global community who believe in health for all, you understand that threats like COVID-19 require global solutions. By sharing this news posts you can inspire your network and help us build a world prepared to help when health emergencies hit.
With thanks to the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office for UK Aid funding from the British people to fund this important response.
Violet Shirvanian-Konarki
24th November 2020 10:27 amThank you to all the team members for assisting Armenia during this difficult times to tackle Covid 19. Your support is very much appreciated.