The first team with medical personnel from the Netherlands may leave for Suriname on Friday. It probably concerns nurses, ward doctors and ICU doctors, says Denise Telgt, infectiologist at Radboud UMC and one of the emergency aid coordinators.
The team is going to Suriname to help with the harrowing corona situation in the country. Due to the high number of corona patients, the highest risk level is now in force. There is code black in hospitals and there is too little oxygen for covid patients. There is also a shortage of corona vaccines.
“We eventually want to send dozens of people and are still looking for medical personnel,” Telgt told NOS. People who want to help can sign up. “I call on nurses and ICU doctors in particular. We ask to be available for two weeks, but bear in mind: it will be really hard. There is now a kind of war situation going on there.”
The team wants to board the plane as soon as possible, but practical matters still need to be arranged, such as visa requirements and a place to stay in Paramaribo. The tools must also be collected, says Telgt, who previously inventoried what is needed in Suriname for the Dutch Ministry of Health.
She expects the ministry to make some of the millions of mouth caps that are now in Dutch warehouses available. “The colleagues in Suriname have drawn up lists of the medical devices that are needed, it concerns a lot of things, such as respiratory equipment and oxygen.”
Vaccines
But Telgt mainly hopes for vaccines. “It is actually my mission to get it to Suriname as quickly as possible, even if it is only a small amount. The ministry has not yet given me a definitive answer as to whether I can take some with me, they say it is complicated.”
Minister De Jonge announced the day before yesterday that he will probably send hundreds of thousands of AstraZeneca vaccines to Suriname in late June or early July. There are already almost half a million doses in stock in the Netherlands. According to the ministry, those doses are all still needed for the second shot for people in the Netherlands who have already had the first AstraZeneca shot.
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