OSLO — Norway will send a team of medical and logistical staff to Italy's Lombardy region to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the Oslo government said on Sunday. The deployment is planned to last four weeks and will likely be based in Bergamo, one of the cities hardest hit by the disease, after health authorities in Lombardy issued a request for international help on March 31. The team consists of 20-25 doctors, nurses and logistical staff, many of whom have done similar work during the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the measles outbreak in Samoa in recent years. "Solidarity in Europe is not a theoretical exercise and now is the time to show it in practice," Norwegian Health Secretary Bent Hoeie said. "We must help each other when crisis hits."

Source: International New York Times April 05, 2020 18:00 UTC