UNICEF supports Egypt during COVID-19 with crucial equipment

CAIRO, 31 May 2020 – UNICEF Egypt has delivered 809,000 essential medical supplies from masks to surgical gowns, The Solidarity Response Fund was essential to ensure these supplies reach the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) to support and protect our healthcare heroes who are fighting COVID-19 every day.

To date, more than 800,000 COVID-19 units of essential medical supplies were delivered to the Ministry’s warehouses; including 500,000 pairs of gloves, 200,000 surgical masks, 2,000 N95 respirator masks, 96,000 surgical gowns and 3,000 coveralls, among other protective items.  was essential to ensure these supplies reach the Ministry of Health and Population to support and protect our healthcare heroes who are fighting COVID-19 every day.

“Combatting an unprecedented global pandemic like COVID-19 requires extended collective work. Hence, we are proud to be collaborating with our partners and donors, to support the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population who is working tirelessly to limit the spread of COVID-19,” said Bruno Maes, UNICEF Representative in Egypt.

 “The frontline workers are everyday heroes; they are the ones who relentlessly work for our safety and the safety of our children. UNICEF is proud and honored to contribute to their safety. We also want to thank the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) for its extensive and timely efforts to curb this virus,” he added.  

Additional support to the Ministry of Health and Population’s (MoHP) led efforts to combat COVID-19 included availing more than 50,000 liters of bleach to disinfect the main quarantine hospitals in Egypt.

“We highly appreciate the great work that is being done by UNICEF to support us in our battle against this pandemic. The substantial contribution of PPEs and other essential medical supplies will surely help us in the battle we are leading against COVID-19. “The ministry and all its workers who are at the forefront of this battle, spare no effort to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19, and we value all the efforts exerted by UNICEF and partners to respond to this unprecedented emergency”.

The Personal Protective Equipment, which was transported with the support of the World Food Programme, will help protect medical personnel and primary healthcare staff who are the first responders on the frontline, providing care and treatment to those affected by the virus.

Worthy of note, this batch of essential medical supplies and personal protective equipment worth over 550,000 USD were all provided through local-market suppliers.               

UNICEF launched a joint tender in April on behalf of several UN organizations for the period covering till the end of 2020 for access to PPE supplies.                        

The objective of the tender led by UNICEF is to establish supply agreements with high impact suppliers to ensure the timely, uninterrupted, sustainable supply of affordable, quality assured PPE products.

On a parallel front, UNICEF is working on preventative actions to protect the health of children and their parents and caregivers.                                     

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, UNICEF has reached more than 1.3 million people in Egypt with disinfectants.

In collaboration with partners, UNICEF is also responding to misinformation, promoting awareness, and healthy hygiene practices; as well as, availing preventative messages along with psychological support through digital platforms.

And to continue UNICEF’s response plan, a second patch of essential medical supplies and PPE’s are currently being procured. This second batch of supplies includes more than 600,000 pair of gloves, and nearly 550,000 surgical masks; in addition to, more than 150,000 surgical gowns.

Also, in the pipeline, another offshore batch of essential medical supplies encompassing more than 95,000 units of protective equipment all of which will be delivered to the warehouses of the MoHP upon arrival.

Despite the increasing pressure on markets, UNICEF secured a new batch of essential medical supplies and personal protective equipment worth more than 1.3 million USD. 

UNICEF is currently working on delivering 25 new ventilators to the MoHP as part of an in-kind donation made by the founding member of the initiative entitled “The Private Sector Alliance”, through UNICEF. 

UNICEF is working relentlessly along with partners; not only, to curb the spread of COVID-19; but also to mitigate the knock-on effects of this pandemic on vulnerable children and their families.

Ultimately, all these crucial interventions were made possible thanks to the generous contributions from the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, the Government of Canada as well as the founding member of the Private Sector Alliance.