WHO handed over medical masks to the State Customs Committee

The delivery is part of Germany's donation of 121 million masks to the World Health Organization for distribution to the countries affected by COVID-19. 926,000 medical masks were sent to Azerbaijan from these medical supplies.

In a statement made at the handover event, Dr. Hande Harmanci stated, “Ensuring the safety and well-being of the health care workers and humanitarians, as well as government partners and stakeholders involved in the COVID-19 response has been a high priority for WHO since the onset of the pandemic. This generous donation facilitated by Germany will help to expand the current public health and social measures and play a role in enhancing preparedness to address health emergencies. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the Government of Germany for partnering with WHO and Azerbaijan to prevent the spread of COVID-19”.

Chairman of the State Customs Committee, Colonel-General of the Customs Service Safar Mehdiyev thanked the German government and the World Health Organization for the support, noting that Azerbaijan has been in close collaboration with the World Health Organization since the beginning of the pandemic.

The chairman of the committee noted that in the first stage of the pandemic, under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, timely measures were taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the country. From the first days of the pandemic, all customs and border checkpoints in the country have started to operate in an intensified mode of operation, and now sanitary-preventive and disinfection measures are being continued in a special mode. He also noted that the Central Customs Hospital of the State Customs Committee has completely restructured its work in the fight against coronavirus and started accepting only coronavirus patients in June last year. The Central Customs Hospital, which currently operates as a pandemic hospital, has all the necessary conditions for the treatment of coronavirus and is staffed by professional healthcare workers.

The German Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Dr Wolfgang Manig, underlined the importance of multilateral cooperation in the fight against COVID-19. “Germany is deeply committed to ensuring fair, transparent and affordable access to vaccines, diagnostics and medical aids like masks. Germany does not tie this access to political conditions in contrast to bilateral pledges of some states. The German Federal Government wants to secure regional healthcare in the long term. With a view to making use of the experience that has been gained in the future, Germany is calling for the WHO to be strengthened”, the Ambassador said. The German government is supporting the global efforts to fight the pandemic to the tune of 2.2 billion euro, including the distribution of 100 million vaccine doses worldwide.

The face masks will be distributed among the national partners, including NGOs as part of COVID-19 response activities, to be used by the healthcare workers, as well as frontline workers involved in managing public services amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in the country.