On Friday, March 19, U.S. Ambassador John Carwile presented the Latvian government with two single-patient isolation and transport systems. Minister of Health Daniels Pavļuts accepted the donation on behalf of the Latvian government.
The U.S. Embassy Office of Defense Cooperation worked with the Latvian Ministry of Health and State Emergency Medical Service (SEMS) to implement the project. The donation, totaling $164,000, was funded by the U.S. European Command Civic Engagement Program, adding to their other recent donations of personal protective equipment and 16 automatic surface and equipment disinfectant units. The single-patient isolation and transport systems will be used by SEMS to transport critically-ill COVID-19 patients from one hospital to another when a higher level of medical care is required. The system fully protects medical personnel while allowing access to the patient to provide medical care.
This donation is the seventh Civic Engagement project implemented by the U.S. Embassy Office of Defense Cooperation to support COVID-19 control and prevention in Latvia. Altogether U.S. government through various funding sources has provided $635,000 worth of personal protective equipment and medical equipment to the Latvian government during the COVID-19 crisis.
In addition to these projects, the U.S. Embassy Office of Defense Cooperation has a long-standing cooperative relationship with SEMS. Since 2014, the Civic Engagement program has renovated four SEMS dispatch centers, one of which in Imanta, Rīga, was completed in February. The total value of these projects is $3 million.
