Coronavirus: EU Humanitarian Air Bridge delivers more supplies and personnel

As part of the EU’s coronavirus global response, the EU humanitarian air bridge has brought this morning 20 tons of supplies and humanitarian and health workers to the West-African country of São Tomé and Principe. The flight was set-up in cooperation with the Portuguese government and several humanitarian partner organisations, and contained mainly protective equipment, test supplies and laboratory material. On their return leg, the flight will also bring back over 200 EU citizens and other passengers to Lisbon in a repatriation effort.Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management, said: “The coronavirus pandemic poses huge logistical challenges for the humanitarian community. The delivery of vital assistance is made more complex, while the needs remain high in many critical areas. With this air bridge we are getting aid to some of the most vulnerable and helping tackle coronavirus globally.” The Commission set up the EU humanitarian air bridge earlier this month together with Member States in a Team Europe approach to transport humanitarian workers and emergency supplies for the coronavirus response, to some of most critical areas around the world. The first Air Bridge flight took place last week to the Central African Republic; more operations will follow in the coming weeks. The visual coverage is available here.