Spain offers help to fight Covid-19 pandemic

The Spanish government has offered to help Portugal fight the lack of hospital resources in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Portuguese Ambassador in Madrid, João Mira Gomes, told the Lusa agency on Monday.

“There has been an offer of support from the Spanish authorities,” said Joao Mira Gomes, adding that the “means of that support” are now being assessed at a technical level.

According to the Spanish source, the initial contact was made by the Spanish Foreign Ministry to the Portuguese embassy in Madrid, but health policy in Spain is decentralised by the autonomous communities, which makes it difficult to coordinate aid.

The third wave of the pandemic has put Portugal at the limit of its hospital capacity, with 275 deaths related to Covid-19 and 5,805 cases of infection with the new coronavirus in the last 24 hours.

In addition to Spain, Portugal has already received offers of help from Austria, which could receive patients with Covid-19 on its territory, and from Germany, which is willing to send health professionals and medical equipment to Portugal.