A medical team of 19 people departed from Oslo Airport to the Lombardy region of Italy on Wednesday to assist the local health authorities in the battle against coronavirus.
The health authorities in the Lombardy region requested assistance just over a week ago and received a positive response from the Norwegian authorities.
A SAS aircraft took off from Gardermoen airport around 2 pm on Wednesday with a team of 19 people, as well as 1.5 tonnes of equipment. The team consists of volunteers from all over the country and is led by the Directorate for Social Security and Emergency Planning (DSB).
In total, there are 16 nurses and doctors, as well as three people from the Civil Defence with responsibilities for logistics and management. The group gathered first at the Starum Civil Defense Camp on Østre Toten ahead of the departure for training.
The plane landed Wednesday afternoon at the Orio al Serio International Airport in Bergamo, east of Milan. From there, they headed for Seriate, six kilometers from Bergamo. The team is scheduled to be in Italy for four weeks.
The official death toll in Italy is the highest in the world and has now passed 17,000.
The medical team is similar to the one Norway sent last year to both the Democratic Republic of Congo during the Ebola outbreak and to Samoa during the measles outbreak.
Norwegian health authorities have considered that the situation in Norway is manageable and that the expected peak of infection is still a while away.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
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