Solidarity among Cities in Response to COVID-19
A hundred thousand surgical masks were donated by the Quanzhou’s Maritime Continental Silk Road Cities Alliance (MCSR CA) Business Council and its members, to Begamo city, Italy, to support their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. All the 100,000 masks arrived in Bergamo city on 17 April.
According to the World Health Organization, as of 10 May, 2020, 218,268 COVID-19 confirmed cases and 30,395 deaths were reported in Italy. Bergamo city went into lockdown with the rest of the Lombardy region on 8 March and quickly became the worst-hit Italian city, with deaths up by 568 per cent in March compared with a five-year average (2015-2019).
The Business Council initiated the donation of surgical masks in early April and under the coordination of the Government of Bergamo, the Italian Red Cross Bergamo Committee received and distributed these masks in the city.
Mr. Giorgio Gori, Mayor of Bergamo, thanked the Business Council, saying: “your gesture of solidarity to our community have multiplied in the recent weeks, and each one of these represents an energy injection. It increases our confidence in facing this complicated moment for our city and our country.”
Italian Red Cross Bergamo Committee receives surgical masks donated by the MCSR CA and its members. Source: MCSR CA.
Surgical masks packed and ready to be dispatched from the MCSR CA office. Source: MCSR CA
According to the MCSR CA Business Council, more of its members are donating medical supplies to their partners in Bergamo and other cities in Italy.
MCSR CA Business Council is a Quanzhou-based NGO in China and has been an active partner of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) South-South and Triangular Cooperation among Maritime-Continental Silk Road Cities for Sustainable Development project since 2016. In February, members of the Business Council donated more than 80,000 locally-sourced surgical masks to Isfahan and other cities in Iran to support their response to the pandemic. Bergamo and Quanzhou have had dynamic partnerships in the manufacturing, textile, and energy industries, with numerous exchange visits among governments, NGOs, and business entities in recent years.
For more about the MCSR CA Business Council, visit WeChat public account.