Donald Trump offers help to Colombia to face the coronavirus

President Iván Duque revealed the offer during the television address on Thursday. The possible collaboration was discussed in a dialogue that both leaders had.

Several of the historic allies of the United States have questioned the policy that President Donald Trump has carried out in the face of international collaboration to face the coronavirus. The US president has been criticized for allegedly giving up collaboration between countries to privilege only the interests of their citizens.

Among the measures most questioned to Trump is the ban on the export of N-95 protective masks to Canada and Latin America. Also, a few days ago, the president announced that he was withdrawing monetary contributions to the World Health Organization (WHO), after accusing the multinational organization of concealing the spread of COVID-19.

Given this position at the international level, this Thursday the announcement of President Iván Duque, which announced that the US president had offered resources to help the Colombian health system to better face the coronavirus, called attention. According to the Colombian president, this offer was made during a “friendly conversation” held by both leaders this Thursday.

See: Only in extreme situations will it be mandatory for health professionals in Colombia to attend COVID-19

According to the Colombian president, the two presidents made gestures of solidarity in the face of the situation they are facing. “First of all, we express our solidarity,” said President Iván Duque, referring to the almost 50,000 people who have died in the United States from the coronavirus.

Later, Iván Duque assured that in the telephone conversation President Donald Trump had confirmed his commitment to help Colombia to face the pandemic. “We were also able to express our gratitude because the United States has expressed its commitment to help the country in the current situation and today President Trump confirmed it by confirming that he is going to facilitate access to any type of equipment that is important to face this contingency.”

According to the Colombian president, the commitment that Trump reached referred to ventilators, essential for the life support of the patients most affected by COVID-19. “We hope that they are coming next month because we know that they also have needs in other states,” said President Duque during his daily speech at 6pm.

You can read: Government forces health workers to be available for the Covid-19 emergency

In addition to aid with supplies, the leaders, as revealed by President Duque, promised to maintain an information channel to build a common front in the face of this pandemic: “We agreed to be sharing information. It was a fraternal conversation and we understand that we are working as a team to confront this pandemic. ”

In addition to revealing President Donald Trump’s commitment, the one-hour television space was used by the president to resolve some doubts that health officials have had regarding decree 538 of 2020, a rule that generated controversy because it established that doctors, Nurses and other professionals must be ready and ready, on an obligatory basis, to answer the national call in case they need them to attend to the new virus. However, during the institutional space, he explained that this provision was modified this Thursday by signing resolution 628.

The new decision clarifies that the obligation will only be if the country is in an extreme situation in which it does not have the capacity to attend and health professionals are needed. In addition, it defines a series of voluntary notification schemes, “what we want is the well-being of health professionals to attend COVID-19,” said the Minister of Health.