Taiwan is helping seven allies in the Caribbean, Central and South America combat coronavirus through sharing the country’s front-line experiences, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs March 31.
A team from Chi Mei Medical Center in the southern city of Tainan led by Dr. Lin Hung-jung, chief medical deputy superintendent, held a videoconference with senior health officials and professionals.
Those in attendance were Dr. George Gough, chief executive officer of the Belize Ministry of Health; Jenny Daniel, deputy permanent secretary of the St. Lucia Department of Health and Wellness; Dr. Cameron Wilkinson, medical chief of staff at Joseph Nathaniel France General Hospital in St. Kitts and Nevis; and Grace Walters, administrator of Milton Cato Memorial Hospital in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Representatives of Cathay General Hospital in Taipei also held a videoconference March 20 with health officials from Paraguay. The session was made possible by the ROC (Taiwan) embassy in the South American nation and Taipei-based International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF), the country’s foremost foreign aid organization.
Other Taipei institutions offering expertise include Taipei Veterans General Hospital, which helped review plans for managing the COVID-19 pandemic developed by the St. Kitts and Nevis government, as well as MacKay Memorial Hospital and National Taiwan University Hospital, which assisted in strengthening the respective response measures of medical institutions in Guatemala and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The MOFA added that New Taipei City-headquartered Far Eastern Memorial Hospital is conducting a teleconference April 1 with health officials from Nicaragua.
Efforts of Taiwan’s medical institutions promoting international public health collaboration are sincerely appreciated by the government and people, the ministry said, adding that their contributions underscore how the country is helping realize Health for All. (SFC-E)
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